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THE  GOSPEL  OF  JESUS 
AND   THE  PROBLEMS  OF  DEMOCRACY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
DALLAS   •    ATLANTA   •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


THE 

GOSPEL  OF  JESUS 


AND 


The  Problems  of  Democracy 


BY 

HENRY  C.  VEDDER 

v\ 

PROFESSOR  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  IN  CROZER  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 
AND  AUTHOR  OF  "SOCIALISM  AND  THE  ETHICS  OF  JESUS," 
"THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY,"  ETC. 


§orfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1914 


COPYRIGHT,  1914 
BY- THE  MACMTLLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  September,  1914 


TO 
THE  MILLIONS  WHO  TOIL 

WITHOUT  HOPE 

THAT  THE   THOUSANDS  MAY  ENJOY 
WITHOUT  THOUGHT 


PREFACE 

THE  man  who  to-day  proclaims  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
in  the  spirit  of  his  Master  must  expect  misunderstand- 
ing, abuse  and  perhaps  persecution.  Why  not  ?  Shall 
the  disciple  be  above  his  Master? 

Still  in  heaven's  name  the  deeds  of  hell  are  done: 
Still  on  the  high-road,  'neath  the  noonday  sun 
The  fires  of  hate  are  lit  for  them  who  dare 
Follow  their  Lord  along  the  untrodden  way. 

I  am  not  suprised  or  disquieted,  therefore,  that  I 
am  accused  of  being  a  dangerous  heretic.  And  it  is 
with  no  expectation  of  getting  rid  of  that  reputation 
that  I  here  protest  that  I  have  no  quarrel  with  ortho- 
doxy. The  kernel  of  it  I  believe  to  be  truth,  as 
firmly  as  the  most  orthodox.  I  find  nothing  false  in 
it,  save  that  kind  of  falsity  which  results  from  a  lay- 
ing of  the  emphasis  in  the  wrong  place.  The  change 
of  emphasis  that  I  urge,  from  the  metaphysics  of 
Paul  to  the  ethics  of  Jesus,  involves  such  a  difference 
of  perspective,  such  a  readjustment  of  magnitudes  and 
values,  as  appears  like  heresy  to  the  more  conservative. 
But  after  a  time  they  will  learn  to  make  the  adjust- 
ment, and  will  perceive  that  nothing  valued  by  the 
old  orthodoxy  has  been  lost,  though  its  form  may  have 
been  not  a  little  altered. 

vii 


Vlll  PREFACE 

We  need  a  reconstructed  theology.  The  theology 
of  all  Churches  has  been  dominated  by  monarchical 
ideas :  it  needs  to  be  recast  in  the  mould  of  democracy. 
It  has  been  permeated  with  ideas  of  special  privilege, 
such  as  were  unavoidable  when  aristocracy  ruled  the 
world ;  it  needs  to  be  restated  in  terms  of  equal  rights. 
As  my  critics  kindly  remind  me,  I  am  no  theologian; 
nevertheless  I  have  endeavored  to  make  a  modest  con- 
tribution to  such  restatement. 

Some  readers  will  detect  an  inconsistency.  They 
will  say,  at  least  to  themselves :  "Here  is  a  man  who 
advocates  one  thing  and  does  another.  He  condemns 
the  wage  system,  yet  works  for  a  salary.  He  is  strong 
against  monopolies,  yet  copyrights  his  book.  He  de- 
clares all  dividends  and  interest  immoral,  yet  is  sup- 
ported from  the  income  of  endowments  invested  in 
stocks,  bonds  and  mortgages."  All  of  which  is  a  true 
bill.  And  therefore  here  is  a  good  place  to  emphasize 
a  thing  that  should  never  be  overlooked  in  our  dis- 
cussion of  social  evils :  the  individual  is  powerless  in 
the  grip  of  the  social  system.  He  has  to  live  his  life 
under  social  conditions  as  they  are,  not  as  he  thinks 
they  should  be,  not  as  he  hopes  they  will  be.  This  is 
just  as  true  of  the  millionaire  as  of  the  wage  earner. 
The  individual  is  powerless,  except  (and  note  the  ex- 
ception, for  it  is  a  large  one)  that  he  is  morally  bound, 
while  reluctantly  accepting  facts  as  they  are,  to  protest 
against  them  with  all  his  power,  and  strive  as  best 
he  may  to  amend  them.  Inconsistency  will  become  a 
serious  charge  when  the  individual  has  the  power  to 
be  consistent.  In  present  social  conditions,  only  that 


PREFACE  IX 

man  is  to  be  esteemed  ethically  culpable  who  acquiesces 
in  a  social  system  that  he  knows  to  be  iniquitous  and 
eagerly  uses  its  iniquities  to  advance  his  own  interests. 
Some  readers  of  my  "Socialism  and  the  Ethics  of 
Jesus,"  while  commending  certain  features  of  it,  re- 
marked that  it  was  too  much  given  to  glittering  gen- 
eralities, and  afforded  too  little  help  to  those  who  hon- 
estly wish  to  do  something  toward  the  betterment  of 
the  social  order,  but  do  not  know  where  or  how  to 
begin.  Something  more  "practical,"  it  was  intimated, 
was  a  desideratum.  In  this  book  I  have  tried  to  be 
practical. 


CONTENTS 

CHAFIKt  PAGE 

I.  THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH  .       .       I 

II.  THE  PROBLEM  OF  SOCIAL  JUSTICE  48 

III.  THE  WOMAN    PROBLEM 85 

IV.  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  CHILD  .        ....       .108 

V.  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  SLUM 148 

VI.  THE  PROBLEM  OF  VICE      .       .       , :      »       .       .182 

VII.  THE  PROBLEM  OF  CRIME 216 

VIII.  THE   PROBLEM   OF  DISEASE 250 

IX.  THE  PROBLEM  OF    POVERTY       .       .       .       .       .    282 

X.  THE  PROBLEM  OF  LAWLESSNESS       ....    332 

APPENDIX:    A.   BIBLIOGRAPHY;   B.   PROGRAMS   FOR 
SOCIAL    REFORM     .......    377 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  JESUS 

AND   THE  PROBLEMS  OF   DEMOCRACY 


THE  GOSPEL   OF  JESUS 


CHAPTER    I 


"!N  the  fulness  of  the  times,  God  sent  forth  his 
Son,"  said  Paul.  However  wide  scope  may  be  given 
to  these  words  by  an  interpreter,  they  cannot  be  taken 
to  mean  less  than  a  process  of  social  and  religious 
development  among  the  Hebrew  people,  of  which  the 
Gospel  was  the  culmination.  It  follows  that  the  Gos- 
pel cannot  be  adequately  understood,  if  studied  apart 
from  the  conditions  out  of  which  it  sprang. 


Before  their  entrance  into  Canaan  the  Hebrews  had 
been  a  collection  of  tribes  or  clans,  twelve  in  number, 
according  to  their  unbroken  and  uncontradicted  tradi- 
tion. They  believed  themselves  to  be  descendants  of 
a  common  ancestor,  and  hence  bound  together  by  those 
ties  of  kinship  that  have  always  been  so  powerful 
among  primitive  peoples.  They  had  been  nomads,  but 
in  their  new  home  a  part  became  cultivators  of  the 

i 


2  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

soil,  while  another  part  dwelt  in  towns  and  were  for 
the  first  time  made  acquainted  with  civilization,  the 
art  of  living  together  in  cities,  with  all  that  such  life 
implies,  whether  of  virtue  or  of  vice.  Private  prop- 
erty in  land  now  developed  among  them,  as  it  usually 
does  when  a  nomadic  people  becomes  agricultural.  A 
careful  study  of  the  book  of  Judges  discloses  these 
social  changes  among  the  Hebrews  of  that  period. 

Then  came  the  period  of  the  kings.  The  Hebrew 
kingdom,  like  all  Oriental  monarchies,  was  a  military 
despotism,  maintained  by  a  standing  army,  the  nucleus 
of  which  was  a  small  body  of  foreign  mercenaries.1 
The  throne  also  relied  on  a  landed  aristocracy,  which 
owed  its  special  privileges  to  royal  favor  and  in  turn 
gave  its  support  to  its  benefactor.  Samuel  had 
warned  the  people  that  such  would  be  their  experience : 

"And  he  [the  king]  will  take  your  fields  and  your  vine- 
yards and  your  olive-yards,  the  best  of  them,  and  give 
them  to  his  servants;  and  he  will  take  the  tenth  of  your 
seed  and  of  your  vineyards,  and  give  to  his  officers  and 
to  his  servants ;  and  your  male  and  female  slaves  and 
your  goodliest  young  men  and  your  asses,  he  will  take 
and  put  to  his  work;  he  will  take  the  tenth  of  your  sheep; 
and  ye  shall  be  his  servants."  (i  Sam.  8:15-17.) 

'The  Gittites  and  their  leader  Ittai  (2  Sam.  15:18-22)  seem 
to  have  been  such  a  band.  Benaiah  is  later  mentioned  as  com- 
mander of  similar  forces  (2  Sam.  20:23).  The  "mighty  men" 
of  David  (2  Sam.  23:8)  were  probably  officers  of  such  troops. 
It  was  Benaiah  who  secured  Solomon  his  throne  (i  K,  1:8-11, 
32-34,  44-46).  These  gibborim,  as  the  main  instruments  of  the 
kings  in  maintaining  their  supremacy  and  doing  injustice,  were 
hated  by  the  prophets  (Hos.  10:  13,  14;  Am.  2:  14-16;  Is.  3:  1-3). 


THE  GOSPEL  AND   THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH         3 

By  such  means  David  and  Solomon  came  to  the 
throne;  by  such  means  they  were  kept  in  power — 
no  wonder  there  was  a  revolution  after  the  latter's 
death.  But  the  revolution  did  not  improve  matters 
much.  The  history  of  the  Hebrews  down  to  the  cap- 
tivity is  a  story  of  the  growth  of  royal  and  aristocratic 
power  at  the  expense  of  the  people.  The  great  landed 
estates  increased  rapidly,  and  the  peasant- farmers 
were  reduced  to  poverty,  the  status  of  "hired  ser- 
vants," or  slavery  (2  K.  4:  i).1 

This  gave  occasion  for  a  social  struggle  the  traces 
of  which  are  clearly  marked  in  the  writings  of  the 
prophets.  Ahab's  seizing  of  Naboth's  vineyard  may 
be  regarded  as  no  unusual  outrage,  unless  that  it  was 
unusually  conspicuous  (i  K.  21).  The  prophets  bit- 
terly denounced  this  oppression: 

Woe  to  those  who  devise  mischief 
And  work  out  evil  on  their  beds !  .  .  . 
And  they  covet  fields  and  seize  them ; 
And  houses  and  take  them  away: 
And  they  oppress  a  man  and  his  house, 
Even  a  man  and  his  heritage  (Mi.  3:  i,  2). 

1  The  tenth  commandment  is  an  unimpeachable  witness  to  the 
antiquity  of  slavery  among  the  Hebrews.  The  words  "man 
servant"  and  "maid  servant"  in  our  English  version  translate 
the  Hebrew  words  for  male  and  female  slaves.  They  could 
be  "coveted"  only  because  they  were  property.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  wife.  The  form  of  the  commandment  is  only  pos- 
sible in  a  patriarchal  society,  where  the  wife  was  a  man's  prop- 
erty equally  with  his  chattels  and  slaves. 


4  THE    GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Jehovah  enters  into  judgment  with  the   elders  of   his 

people 

And  with  the  princes  thereof: 
"It  is  ye  that  have  devoured  the  vineyard; 
The  plunder  of  the  poor  is  in  your  houses"  (Is.  3: 14). 
Woe  unto  those  who  join  house  to  house, 
Who  add  field  to  field  until  there  is  no  room, 
And  ye  are  made  to  dwell  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  land 

(Is.  5:8). 

Ezekiel  rebukes  the  ruling  class  for  their  greed : 
"And  the  prince  shall  not  take  of  the  people's  inher- 
itance by  oppression  to  eject  them  from  their  pos- 
session; he  shall  give  an  inheritance  to  his  sons  out  of 
his  own  possession;  that  my  people  be  not  scattered 
every  man  from  his  possession"  (46:  18).  Even  kin- 
ship did  not  prevent  exploitation  (Mi.  7:2;  Is.  9:  19; 
Jer.  9:4).  An  interesting  incident  in  the  struggle  is 
the  protest  against  private  property  in  land  made  by 
the  Rechabites,  the  significance  of  whose  prolonged 
separate  existence  has  been  curiously  missed  by 
Christian  students  of  the  Bible.  It  is  a  pity  to  spoil 
the  thousands  of  temperance  sermons  that  have  been 
preached  from  Jer.  35  :  6-10,  but  the  story  has  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  temperance,  and  everything  to 
do  with  this  agrarian  struggle  among  the  Jews.  Jona- 
dab,  the  son  of  Rechab,  gave  this  command  to  his 
children : 

Ye  shall  not  drink  wine,  neither  ye  nor  your  sons  for- 
ever ;  neither  shall  ye  build  house,  nor  sow  seed,  nor  plant 
vineyards,  nor  shall  ye  possess  any;  but  all  your  days 


THE  GOSPEL   AND   THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH         5 

shall  ye  dwell  in  tents ;  that  ye  may  live  many  days  in  the 
land  where  ye  sojourn. 

The  injunction  to  drink  no  wine,  as  is  clear  from 
the  accompanying  injunction,  was  based  solely  on  the 
idea  that  the  drinking  of  wine  was  a  recognition  of 
the  right  to  plant  vineyards,  which  again  was  insepa- 
rable from  owning  land.  For  the  same  reason  the 
Rechabites  might  not  sow  seed  or  build  house,  since 
these  equally  implied  recognition  of  property  in  land. 
They  were  to  revert  to  the  nomad  life  of  their  fore- 
fathers, and  renounce  ownership  of  the  soil,  even  right 
of  occupation  and  use. 

We  better  appreciate  the  intensity  of  feeling  shown 
by  the  prophets  when  we  realize  that  they  came  from 
the  exploited  class.  Elijah  came  from  the  hill  country 
of  Gilead,  Elisha  from  a  village  of  Ephraim,  Amos 
from  Tekoa  in  Judah,  and  Micah  and  Jeremiah  from 
villages  of  the  same  region.  They  represented  the 
peasantry,  the  tillers  of  the  soil,  the  keepers  of  the 
sheep,  the  class  that  was  suffering  most  from  the  exac- 
tions of  the  rich  and  powerful  land-owning  nobles.  It 
is  this  "class-consciousness,"  as  it  is  the  fashion  now 
to  call  it,  which  puts  the  caloric  into  these  words  of 
Isaiah : 

Ye  shall  no  longer  trample  my  courts  to  bring  oblations ; 
Vain  is  incense,  it  is  an  abomination  to  me.  .  .  . 
Your  new  moons  and  your  appointed   feasts  my  soul 

hates.  .  .  . 

Wash  you,  make  you  clean; 
Put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  mine  eyes ; 


6  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Cease  to  do  evil. 

Learn  to  do  good, 

Seek  out  justice, 

Set  right  the  oppressor. 

Judge  the  orphan, 

Plead  for  the  widow  (i  :n-i7). 

And  these  like  words  from  Amos : 

I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts, 
And  I  take  no  delight  in  your  festivals.  .  .  . 
Take  away  from  me  the  noise  of  thy  songs, 
For  I  will  not  hear  the  melody  of  thy  harps. 
But  let  justice  roll  down  like  waters, 
And  righteousness  like  an  unfailing  stream  (5:21,  23, 
24). 

And  Micah  is  "very  bold"  when  he  says: 

With  what  shall  I  come  before  Jehovah, 

And  bow  myself  before  God  on  high? 

Shall  I  come  before  him  with  burnt  offerings, 

With  calves  of  a  year  old? 

Will  Jehovah  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams, 

Or  with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil? 

Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my  transgression, 

The  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul? 

He  has  told  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good; 

And  what  does  Jehovah  require  of  thee, 

But  to  do  justice,  and  to  love  mercy, 

And  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?     (6:6-8). 

The  two  great  words  of  the  prophetic  literature  of 
the  Hebrews  are  "justice"  and  "righteousness,"  and 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH         7 

the  prophets  insist  with  endless  iteration  that  formal 
piety  is  no  substitute  for  these  in  the  eyes  of  Jehovah. 
Both  are  social  words;  both  have  to  do  with  social 
relations;  together  they  inculcate  on  the  son  of  Israel 
such  conduct  as  is  due  from  him  to  his  blood  brother, 
son  of  a  common  father,  according  to  the  old  ethics  of 
the  clan. 

Along  with  this  social  struggle  went  the  religious: 
the  contest  between  the  exclusive  worship  of  Jehovah, 
and  the  coordinate  worship  of  the  Baalim,  or  gods  of 
the  region  before  the  Hebrew  invasion.  The  royal 
house  and  the  aristocracy  were  inclined  to  a  "liberal" 
policy ;  they  made  frequent  alliances,  political  and  mat- 
rimonial, with  the  heathen,  the  result  of  which  was 
to  admit  the  worship  of  Baalim  as  subordinate  gods — > 
to  establish,  in  fact,  a  Hebrew  pantheon  in  which 
Jehovah  should  hold  some  such  position  as  Zeus  and 
Jupiter  held  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  systems.  The 
wronged  peasant- farmer  class  was,  as  a  whole,  faith- 
ful to  Jehovah  and  his  exclusive  worship.  Hence 
the  prophets  mingle,  in  almost  equal  proportions,  de- 
nunciations of  the  idolatry  of  the  ruling  class  and  of 
their  social  injustice.  In  both  they  are  sinning  against 
Jehovah.  In  the  prophetic  literature,  the  identifica- 
tion of  the  social  and  the  religious  struggle  is  nearly 
complete,  if  not  quite. 

The  positive  side  of  the  prophetic  teaching  was  the 
announcement  of  a  twofold  message:  first,  Jehovah 
would  punish  this  double  iniquity  of  the  rich  and 
powerful.  The  monarchy  would  disappear,  and  Jeru- 
salem would  be  destroyed,  unless  the  rulers  returned 


8  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

to  Jehovah  and  caused  justice  to  prevail.  The  cap- 
tivity fulfilled  this  prediction  and  brought  the  fierce 
social  and  religious  struggle  to  an  end.  The  second 
element  in  the  prophetic  message  was  that  a  Deliverer 
would  arise,  a  Prince  who  would  reign  according  to 
the  will  of  Jehovah ;  and  glowing  pictures  were  drawn 
of  the  glory,  righteousness,  peace  and  prosperity  that 
all  should  experience  in  this  new  kingdom.  From  this 
point  we  trace  the  development  of  that  Messianic  hope, 
that  idea  of  Redemption,  which  is  the  unique  fea- 
ture of  Judaism,  differentiating  it  unmistakably  from 
all  other  ancient  religious  systems.  'The  Bible  is  the 
history  of  Redemption  and  the  Gospel  is  the  culmina- 
tion of  the  story — Saviour  is  the  distinctive  Christian 
word,  and  salvation  the  distinctive  Christian  idea. 

The  prophetic  idea  of  Redemption  is  two-sided :  the 
individual  is  to  be  redeemed  from  sin  to  righteous- 
ness, and  society  is  to  be  redeemed  from  injustice  and 
oppression  to  social  righteousness.  But  of  these  two 
ideas,  no  reader  of  the  prophets  can  deny  that  the 
latter  is  made  incomparably  the  more  vivid  nd  em- 
phatic. Yet  when  the  Jews  came  back  from  captivity 
to  rebuild  Jerusalem,  the  prophets  and  their  teachings 
no  longer  swayed  their  minds.  They  came  back  con- 
vinced monotheists,  indeed,  loyal  to  Jehovah  as  the 
only  God,  but  they  came  aristocrats  also.  The  proph- 
ets were  thenceforth  relegated  to  second  place  among 
their  religious  writings,  the  first  place  of  authority 
being  given  to  the  Thorah,  or  law,  which  established 
the  privileges  and  prerogatives  of  the  priesthood  on  a 
secure  foundation.  Thenceforth  a  priestly  caste  ruled 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH         9 

the  nation.  An  intellectual  basis  for  their  growing 
encroachments  was  furnished  by  the  rise  of  the 
Rabbis,  the  teachers  and  interpreters  of  the  law;  and 
was  further  completed  by  the  synagogue,  designed  pri- 
marily for  the  teaching  of  the  law  in  every  Jewish 
community. 

The  farmer-peasants  had  probably  never  been  de- 
ported in  large  numbers,  especially  from  Galilee;  and 
there  was  now  a  recrudescence  of  the  social  struggle. 
There  is  a  moving  picture  of  the  social  distress  of  the 
people  in  Nehemiah  V,  and  of  the  effort  at  reform 
made  by  him,  which  probably  had  only  a  temporary 
effect.  We  lack  full  materials  for  the  study  of  this 
struggle,  but  the  clear-eyed  can  discern  plain  evidence 
of  its  continuance  in  the  Jewish  apocryphal  books,  es- 
pecially Maccabees  and  the  Wisdom  of  Sirach.  The 
growing  doctrine  of  Messianism  among  the  Jews  dur- 
ing this  period  is  testimony,  both  to  the  bitterness  of 
the  struggle  and  to  the  encouragement  given  to  the 
oppressed  by  this  hope.  In  Galilee,  among  the  peas- 
antry, the  Messianic  idea  seems  to  have  taken  the 
form  mainly  of  hope  of  social  deliverance.  In  Jeru- 
salem, among  the  aristocracy,  especially  after  the  loss 
of  independence  and  subjection  to  Rome,  the  Mes- 
sianic hope  assumed  a  political  form  and  was  intensely 
anti-Roman. 

The  limitations  of  these  ideas  that  we  have  been 
tracing,  as  they  prevailed  among  the  Jews  in  the  time 
of  Jesus,  must  also  be  understood  if  we  would  get  a 
full  comprehension  of  the  Gospel.  Jehovah  was  the 
Father  of  Israel,  but  only  the  creator  of  other  men. 


IO  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

The  Jews  were  a  chosen  people,  having  a  relation  to 
Jehovah  that  no  other  people  could  possibly  sustain. 
Redemption,  whether  of  the  individual  or  of  society, 
was  for  Jews  alone.  Messiah  would  sway  his  scepter 
over  all  the  nations,  but  to  break  them  in  pieces  and 
make  them  subject  to  the  Jew.1  Social  justice  was 
justice  owed  from  Jew  to  Jew,  because  all  Jews  were 
brothers  by  descent  from  Abraham.  It  is  the  old 
clan  idea  of  justice,  essentially  unmodified,  that  we 
find  throughout  the  Old  Testament.  This  explains 
what  would  otherwise  be  incomprehensible  ethics. 
The  Jew  might  not  take  interest  from  his  "neighbor," 
that  is,  another  Jew,  but  might  lend  at  interest  to  a  for- 
eigner (Deut.  23:  19,  20;  Ex.  22:25-27).  Jews  must 
not  eat  anything  that  died  of  itself,  but  might  give  it 
to  a  stranger  in  the  gates  or  sell  it  to  a  foreigner 
(Deut.  14:21).  Jews  must  not  hold  each  other  in 
slavery,  at  most  after  six  years  a  Jewish  slave  must 
be  freed  (Ex.  21 :  2),  but  they  might  buy  of  foreigners 
and  hold  them  slaves  forever  (Lev.  25  :  44-46).  Jere- 
miah stresses  this  principle  heavily,  and  clearly  implies 
that  violation  of  such  brotherly  rights  was  one  of  the 
crying  sins  of  his  times  (34:8,  9). 

No  ideas  of  God  sustaining  equal  relations  to  all 
men,  of  a  Redemption  for  the  whole  world,  of  human 
rights  apart  from  clan  rights,  can  be  found  in  the 
Judaism  in  which  Jesus  was  bred. 

1  Ps.  2:8,  9 ;  Dan.  2 :  44 ;  Ps.  47 :  2-4.  There  are  occasional 
glimpses  of  wider  outlook  in  the  prophets  (Is.  19:  19-25;  Zech. 
8:22,  23),  but  they  never  became  popular,  never  were  embodied 
in  the  system  that  we  know  as  Judaism. 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH       II 


II 


Into  such  a  nation  as  this,  himself  bred  under  the 
influence  of  such  ideas,  came  Jesus  proclaiming  the 
Good  News  of  a  deliverance  for  all  men.  Of  the  vari- 
ous ideas  contained  in  his  Gospel,  the  fundamental 
thing  was  the  ideal  of  God  that  he  made  known.  God 
is  the  one  Being  who  is  good,  the  fountain  of  all  good- 
ness. And  "good"  means  the  same  when  Jesus  predi- 
cates it  of  God,  as  when  we  ascribe  goodness  to  man 
— that  is,  it  is  the  same  in  quality;  God's  goodness 
differs  from  man's  only  in  degree,  in  extent.  When 
we  have  formed  our  highest  ideal  of  goodness,  God 
corresponds  to  that  ideal,  yet  exceeds  it.  He  has 
every  excellence  that  we  can  conceive,  without  any 
alloy  of  evil,  in  the  highest  possible  energy. 

All  accounts  of  Jesus  make  it  plain  that  he  was 
conscious  of  perfect  moral  integrity;  he  challenged  his 
opponents  to  point  out  any  defect  in  character  or  con- 
duct. That  on  one  occasion  he  refused  to  be  called 
"good"  (Mark  10:  18),  may  argue  that  he  was  con- 
scious of  being  temptable,  and  therefore  of  needing 
prayer  and  communion  with  God  such  as  would  keep 
him  ever  in  accord  with  his  Father's  will,  but  is  in  no 
way  incompatible  with  an  unclouded  consciousness 
that  his  loyal  allegiance  was  in  fact  unbroken.  Jesus 
makes  the  sweeping  claim  that  he,  he  alone,  has  com- 
plete knowledge  of  the  Father  (Luke  10:  21-24),  that 
he  alone  is  capable  of  imparting  such  knowledge  to 
those  willing  to  receive  it.  This  is  his  claim  to  su- 


12  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

premacy  as  religious  teacher,  and  the  ground  of  the 
demand  that  he  makes  for  trust  in  him,  or  faith.  To 
confess  him  or  to  deny  him  is  a  matter  of  transcendent 
importance,  because  it  determines  a  man's  moral 
standing  (Luke  12  :  8).  This  is  also  why  a  loyal  fol- 
lower of  Jesus  can  admit  no  other  to  be  his  equal  in 
spiritual  authority,  can  place  the  words  of  no  other 
teacher  on  a  level  with  his. 

Jesus  proclaimed  God  a  Being  whose  nature  can  be 
best  expressed  in  the  one  phrase,  "holy  love,"  and  can 
be  made  clearest  to  us  under  the  figure  of  Fatherhood. 
Greek  philosophy  made  men  acquainted  with  a  meta- 
physical Deity;  Jesus  introduced  men  to  a  Heavenly 
Father.  He  first  taught  us  to  call  God  "Our  Father 
who  art  in  Heaven."  This  Father  in  Heaven  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  explain  by  representing  an  earthly 
father  at  his  best,  as  in  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal 
Son.  There  is  no  room  in  that  parable  for  the  idea 
of  a  God  who  is  angry  with  the  wicked  and  hates 
them,  or  a  forgiveness  of  sins  that  depends  on  the 
propitiation  of  a  stern  Judge  by  a  vicarious  bearing 
of  the  punishment  due.  These  things  may  be  con- 
ceived of  a  metaphysical  Deity,  not  of  a  Father-God. 

Jesus  taught  his  disciples  to  pray  to  this  Father  in 
Heaven,  "Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven  so  on  earth." 
But  what  is  God's  will?  Fantastic  answers  have  been 
given  to  that  question  by  speculative  theologians,  but 
in  the  light  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  about  his  Father 
the  one  possible  reply  is :  the  will  of  a  Being  whose 
nature  is  holy  love  can  be  nothing  else  than  to  make 
and  keep  all  his  creatures  like  himself.  It  is  the  will 


THE  GOSPEL  AND   THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH       13 

of  God  that  his  goodness  shall  prevail  in  earth  as  in 
Heaven.  Hence  the  salvation  that  Jesus  came  to  give 
men  must  consist,  not  in  deliverance  from  a  penalty, 
not  in  appeasing  a  Judge,  but  in  helping  men  to  be- 
come good,  to  become  like  their  Father  in  Heaven. 
It  is  not  attainment  of  formal  "justification,"  but  im- 
partation  of  new  character,  the  power  of  an  endless 
life.  This  is  the  heart  of  the  Good  News  that  Jesus 
proclaimed  and  that  he  sent  his  disciples  out  into  the 
world  to  teach  in  his  name. 

But  as  Jesus  revealed  God  under  the  figure  of  Fa- 
therhood, so  he  described  his  own  mission  under  a 
figure:  he  said  to  men,  "The  kingdom  of  God  is  at 
hand."  He  declared  that  he  was  the  anointed  (Mes- 
siah) of  God  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  this  king- 
dom. And  in  discourses  and  parables,  by  word  and 
deed,  he  made  clear  to  his  disciples  what  he  meant 
by  this  kingdom,  what  sort  of  men  were  to  be  its 
subjects,  and  what  it  was  fitted  to  accomplish  in  the 
world.  If  we  would  know  what  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
really  means,  therefore,  we  must  study  his  teachings 
regarding  the  kingdom. 

Jesus  taught  that  his  kingdom  is  both  spiritual  and 
material,  both  visible  and  invisible;  it  comes  first  in 
the  hearts  of  men,  but  it  becomes  manifest  in  their 
lives.  It  is  so  different  from  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world,  so  contrary  to  the  ordinary  desires  and  instincts 
of  men,  as  to  demand  entire  reconstruction  of  charac- 
ter, complete  reversal  of  thought  and  purpose.  And 
this  Jesus  again  describes  under  a  figure:  such  a 
change  is  tantamount  to  new  birth.  This  must  come 


14  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

from  above;  man  cannot  effect  so  great  an  alteration 
in  himself;  a  Power  not  himself 'that  makes  for  right- 
eousness must  establish  in  him  this  love  of  righteous- 
ness. Hence  Jesus  adds,  only  the  meek,  the  teachable, 
the  childlike  in  spirit  can  enter  the  kingdom;  the 
proud,  the  wise  in  their  own  conceit,  the  self-centered 
are  not  excluded  from  the  kingdom — they  exclude 
themselves.  This  new  life,  this  new  character,  is  the 
beginning  of  God-likeness;  it  is  the  first  step  in  the 
process  of  growing  into  the  Father's  goodness;  and 
this  possibility  of  goodness,  this  approach  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  one  perfectly  good  Being,  constitutes  sal- 
vation. It  is  the  only  way  in  which  man  can  be  de- 
livered from  the  power  of  evil. 

'Thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven, 
so  on  earth."  When  we  utter  these  words  we  pray 
for  the  coming  of  a  society  of  all  those  who  seek  the 
doing  of  God's  will,  a  society  all  of  whose  institutions 
shall  be  ordered  according  to  the  will  of  God.  Fun- 
damental in  that  will  is  the  doing  of  justice  between 
man  and  man.  The  distinction  between  sins  against 
our  brother  and  sins  against  God  is  possible  only  in 
thought,  and  perhaps  should  be  considered  impossible 
even  there ;  in  fact,  a  sin  against  our  brother  is  a  sin 
against  God.  That  basic  truth  invalidates  most  of 
our  current  ethics,  and  quite  as  much  of  our  current 
theology.  It  entirely  discredits  the  evangelism  of  the 
past,  and  calls  for  a  new  evangel.  Men  used  to  be 
converted  to  God  alone,  and  think  it  quite  sufficient; 
now  they  must  be  converted  to  God  and  their  fellows, 
or  we  can  no  longer  recognize  them  as  converted. 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH       1 5 

And  half  of  those  who  call  themselves  Christians — 
and  this  is  speaking  very  moderately — have  never  been 
converted  to  their  fellows.  This  is  righteous  judg- 
ment, because  the  same  who  said,  "Judge  not,  that  ye 
be  not  judged,"  said  also,  "Therefore  by  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them." 

In  his  teaching  regarding  the  kingdom  Jesus  there- 
fore proclaimed  a  social  revolution,  but  not  by  vio- 
lence. The  acceptance  of  his  precepts  would  now  as 
then  lead  to  a  complete  overturning  and  reconstruc- 
tion of  social  institutions,  but  peacefully  and  in  the 
spirit  of  mutual  good  will.  This  teaching  of  revolu- 
tion and  rejection  of  force  explains  why  Jesus  was 
popular  in  Galilee  and  hated  in  Judea — the  Messianic 
ideas  of  these  two  regions  greatly  differed.  The  wis- 
dom of  his  program  was  vindicated  by  the  later  his- 
tory of  the  Jews :  it  was  a  violent  attempt  at  revolu- 
tion that  caused  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
scattering  of  the  Jewish  nation.  His  teaching  has  also 
been  vindicated  by  the  uncounted  attempts  of  his  mis- 
guided disciples  to  set  up  by  violence  the  kingdom 
whose  essence  is  righteousness  and  peace  and  inward 
joy.  In  all  such  cases  men  have  found  that  they  who 
take  the  sword  will  perish  by  the  sword. 

Neither  his  own  age  nor  any  of  the  ages  that  fol- 
lowed could  comprehend  such  a  Gospel  as  Jesus 
taught.  Even  the  faith  of  the  prophet  who  first  saw 
in  Jesus  the  Hope  of  Israel  seems  to  have  wavered,  for 
he  sent  messengers  to  ask,  "Art  thou  he  that  should 
come,  or  look  we  for  another?"  The  reply  of  Jesus 
has  been  criticized  as  an  evasion  of  John's  question 


l6  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

(Luke  7:  19-23),  and  such  it  may  seem  to  the  care- 
less reader.  In  view  of  all  the  circumstances  it  was 
equivalent  to  saying :  "I  am  not  the  political  Messiah 
whom  many  expect,  but  my  works  show  that  I  am  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah  whom  his  most  spiritual  prophet 
described.  Happy  the  man  who  can  see  me  for  what 
I  am,  and  is  not  disturbed  because  I  do  not  correspond 
to  his  preconceived  ideal."  What  answer  could  have 
been  more  to  the  point,  or  more  comforting  to  the 
imprisoned  Baptist?  We  must  recollect  that  the  Ori- 
ental habit  is  to  reply  to  a  query  indirectly,  not  in  the 
blunt,  direct  Western  fashion. 

The  spirit  of  the  Gospel  was  never  set  forth  more 
clearly,  even  by  Jesus  himself,  than  in  his  address  in 
the  synagogue  at  Nazareth  (Luke  4:  18,  19).  The 
lesson  of  the  day  was  from  Isaiah,  61  :i,  2: 

The  Spirit  of  Jehovah  is  upon  me, 

Because  he  anointed  me  to  preach  good  news  to  the  poor ; 

He  has  sent  me  to  proclaim  deliverance  to  captives, 

And  recovering  of  sight  to  blind  men, 

To  send  crushed  ones  away  free, 

To  proclaim  an  acceptable  year  of  Jehovah. 

"To-day,"  said  Jesus,  "has  this  Scripture  been  ful- 
filled in  your  ears."  The  Gospel  means  liberty,  it  is 
glad  tidings  to  the  poor,  it  is  deliverance  of  all  who 
are  in  bondage.  A  Christianity  that  does  not  mean 
this  has  become  divorced  from  the  teaching  of  its 
Founder,  and  no  longer  is  worthy  of  his  name. }  Jesus 
refused  to  have  his  Glad  Tidings,  his  joyous,  hopeful 
message  of  deliverance,  wrapped  in  the  swaddling- 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH       I? 

clothes  of  rabbinic  ceremonialism.  Fasting  and  sad- 
ness were  as  incompatible  with  his  work  and  procla- 
mation of  new  truth  as  they  would  be  at  a  bridal  feast. 
There  was  nothing  in  common  between  the  old  legal- 
istic system  and  the  new  ideas  of  God  and  life  that  he 
taught. 

Freedom,  equality,  brotherhood,  are  the  watchwords 
of  the  new  faith,  yet  the  disciples  of  Jesus  have  ill 
learned  this,  while  others  have  not  perceived  it  at 
all,  or  have  perceived  only  to  reject  with  scorn. 
Among  the  latter  is  Nietzsche.  "Christianity,"  said 
he,  "is  the  revolt  of  all  that  creeps  upon  the  ground 
against  what  is  elevated."  Precisely:  it  is  the  revolt 
of  democracy  against  aristocracy.  Christianity  as 
Jesus  taught  it,  the  Gospel  as  he  declared  it,  is  just 
that,  and  what  the  small-souled  philosopher  thought 
its  disgrace  is  its  glory.  But  Christianity  as  practiced 
to-day  is  something  vastly  different;  if  it  has  not  gone 
over  to  the  aristocracy,  as  some  charge,  it  has  trimmed 
between  the  two,  ashamed  to  desert  democracy  alto- 
gether, while  its  heart  has  been  in  the  opposite  camp. 
Or,  to  change  the  figure,  the  Church  has  been  trying 
to  ride  two  horses,  and  as  democracy  and  aristocracy 
get  further  apart  every  day,  pretty  soon  something 
is  going  to  drop. 

Brotherhood  is  on  the  whole  the  greatest  of  the 
Gospel  watchwords.  Jesus  taught  that  the  members 
of  the  kingdom  are  brothers,  because  they  are  all 
children  of  one  Father.  He  who  cannot  see  in  other 
men  his  brothers  has  no  warrant  from  Jesus  to  call 
God  his  Father.  The  two  things  are  inseparable.  All 


1 8  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

men  are,  actually  or  potentially,  brothers  to  a  disciple 
of  Jesus.  That  a  man  is  "saved"  means  that  he  has 
begun  to  see  a  brother  in  every  other  man,  that  he  is 
beginning  to  love  his  fellows  as  God  loves  them;  and 
in  practice  that  means  that  he  give  to  every  other  man 
the  treatment  of  a  brother.  This  is  the  very  heart  of 
the  Gospel,  as  Jesus  expressed  it  in  his  twin  precept, 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart"  and 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

And  how  searching  a  test  of  the  reality  of  this  love 
Jesus  gives  us :  "If  thou  art  offering  thy  gift  at  the 
altar,  and  there  rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath 
aught  against  thee,  leave  there  thy  gift  before  the 
altar  and  go  thy  way,  first  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother, 
and  then  come  and  offer  thy  gift."  That  is  a  simple 
but  decisive  method  by  which  any  one  may  decide 
whether  he  is  possessed  by  the  spirit  of  love  that  Jesus 
taught :  Am  I  more  disturbed  by  the  wrong  that  I  do 
my  fellow  than  by  the  wrong  that  I  suffer  from  him  ? 
If  my  brother  has  aught  against  me,  if  I  have  done 
him  a  wrong,  I  must  make  myself  right  with  him 
before  I  try  to  get  right  with  God,  says  Jesus.  The 
process  cannot  be  reversed.  How  different  this  is 
from  the  spirit  of  paganism,  which  regarded  it  as  the 
highest  eulogy  of  a  dead  man  to  say  of  him  that  none 
had  done  more  good  to  his  friends  or  harm  to  his  foes. 
"But  I  say  unto  you,"  said  Jesus,  "love  your  enemies, 
do  good  to  them  that  hate  you." 

Love  requires  not  only  that  we  right  the  wrongs 
we  have  done,  but  that  we  forgive  the  wrongs  done 
us.  Jesus  taught  his  disciples  to  pray,  "Forgive  us 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH       19 

our  debts,  as  we  have  forgiven  our  debtors."  God's 
forgiveness  is  not  mere  remission  of  penalty,  but  ad- 
mission to  a  new  experience  of  his  love;  and  this  is 
impossible  until  the  spirit  of  love  takes  possession  of 
our  hearts  and  rules  us.  This  duty  of  forgiveness  is 
put  in  its  most  striking  form  in  the  parable  of  the  two 
servants — he  who  will  receive  forgiveness  must  be- 
stow forgiveness.  And  yet,  one  of  the  saddest  things 
about  moral  evil  is  that  we  cannot  always  forgive  our 
brother :  the  possibility  of  forgiveness  is  limited  by 
the  receptiveness  of  others.  The  heart  so  calloused  by 
wrong-doing  that  it  has  lost  its  susceptibility,  and  no 
longer  responds  to  the  voice  of  love,  cannot  be  for- 
given, because  it  has  become  incapable  of  receiving 
forgiveness.  If  men  will  not  accept  love  it  cannot  be 
forced  upon  them,  and  there  is  no  way  in  which  an 
offense  may  be  blotted  out  so  long  as  the  offender 
will  not  let  it  go. 

Ill 

The  Gospel  on  its  practical  side  is  brotherhood. 
The  content  of  this  idea  is  large,  but  it  cannot  be 
supposed  to  mean  less  than  these  four  things:  equal 
rights  for  all,  the  supremacy  of  the  common  good, 
mutual  dependence  and  service,  and  active  good  will 
to  all. 

Equal  rights  for  all.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  is  pure 
democracy.  Jesus  trusted  the  people  as  completely  as 
the  greater  part  of  those  who  teach  in  his  name  dis- 
trust them.  Many  fancy  themselves  democrats  be- 


2O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

cause,  as  they  say,  they  believe  in  "the  rule  of  the  peo- 
ple"; but  these  are  half-hearted  democrats  who,  on 
cross-examination,  avow  their  belief  in  the  rule  of  the 
people,  not  by  the  people  themselves,  but  "by  a  repre- 
sentative part  of  the  people,"  wiser  and  better  fitted 
to  rule  than  the  whole  people.  A  genuine  democrat 
is  one  who  believes  heartily  in  the  whole  people  and 
rejoices  that  he  is  one  of  them.  If  there  was  a  "lower 
class"  in  the  day  of  Jesus,  he  belonged  to  it;  if  there 
were  any  "common  people,"  he  was  one  of  them.  The 
true  disciple  of  Jesus  offers  the  Pharisee's  prayer, 
with  the  negative  omitted :  "O  God,  I  thank  thee  that 
I  am  as  other  men  are."  He  gladly  shares  the  com- 
mon lot. 

One  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  truest  sayings  was :  "No 
man  is  good  enough  to  govern  another  man  without 
that  man's  consent."  It  is  easier,  as  all  human  experi- 
ence shows,  to  educate  a  democracy  to  govern  itself, 
than  to  train  a  "better  class"  to  rule  the  rest  of  the 
people.  Power  is  corrupting  except  when  diffused. 
When  everybody  has  as  much  power  as  anybody,  tyr- 
anny and  corruption  vanish  together.  It  is  no  ques- 
tion of  a  vicious  aristocracy — every  class  is  vicious. 
The  working  class  is  no  more  righteous,  no  more 
worthy  to  bear  rule,  than  any  other,  and  only  flatterers 
and  deceivers  tell  the  working  class  otherwise.  The 
three-cornered  struggle  now  in  progress  between  or- 
ganizations, each  claiming  to  represent  the  true  inter- 
ests of  the  workers,  is  testimony  irrefutable  that  the 
workers  yield  to  the  temptations  of  class  selfishness 
as  quickly  as  any  other  class.  The  trades  unions  of 


THE   GOSPEL   AND   THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH       21 

the  American  Federation  of  Labor  are  a  labor  aris- 
tocracy that  looks  with  disdain  on  the  interests  of  the 
unskilled  labor  of  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the 
World,  while  the  Socialist  Party  claims  to  have  at 
heart  the  interests  of  both,  but  is  in  imminent  danger 
of  failing  to  gain  the  confidence  of  either.  There  is 
no  way  out  of  the  labyrinth  but  the  way  of  Jesus: 
the  Gospel  of  brotherhood  and  equal  rights. 

"Democracy  is  a  failure,"  cry  some  faint-hearted 
Americans.  Pseudo-democracy  or  semi-democracy 
has  failed,  beyond  a  doubt.  When  our  Federal  Con- 
stitution was  adopted,  of  a  population  of  three  mil- 
lions about  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  were 
qualified  voters.  Democracy  indeed!  Real  democ- 
racy, real  political  democracy  even,  has  never  yet  had 
existence  in  America,  much  less  trial,  though  it  is 
now  beginning  to  prevail;  and  industrial  democracy 
is  still  only  a  dream  of  the  time  to  be.  But  pseudo- 
democracy,  failure  though  it  is,  has  accomplished 
everything  of  value,  everything  that  will  endure,  in 
the  development  of  America.  What  may  we  not  ex- 
pect from  a  century  of  real  democracy,  equal  rights 
for  all? 

The  supremacy  of  the  common  good.  This  nega- 
tives all  selfish  striving,  all  merely  personal  ambition. 
It  strikes  at  the  root  of  all  modern  business  enter- 
prise, the  end  of  which  is  personal  profit  without 
regard  to  the  common  good.  Jesus  called  the  concen- 
trated wealth  of  his  time  Mammon,  and  said  plainly 
to  those  who  would  be  his  disciples,  "You  cannot 
serve  God  and  Mammon."  But  his  Church  to-dsv 


22  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

knows  better;  it  serves  both — God  with  the  lip,  Mam- 
mon with  the  heart.  It  cannot  be  denied :  that  bastard, 
cringing,  sycophantic  thing  that  our  age  calls  Chris- 
tianity is  nothing  else  than  the  organized  worship  of 
Mammon.  Mammon  is  the  god  of  this  present  world, 
and  all  who  desire  to  increase  their  material  posses- 
sions rather  than  their  spiritual,  all  who  are  actuated 
by  ambition  rather  than  by  love,  all  who  would  be 
greatest  rather  than  least,  rule  rather  than  serve,  are 
his  willing  worshipers  and  slaves.  Righteousness, 
truth  and  love  are  foolishness  to  Mammon;  they  are 
an  impractical  ideal;  there  is  no  profit  in  them.  But 
in  the  sight  of  Jesus  they  are  the  whole  of  life,  all 
that  makes  life  worth  living.  Mammon  urges  men 
to  multiply  their  possessions;  Jesus  urges  men  to  en- 
rich their  souls.  Mammon  is  property,  and  that  the 
world  may  move  forward  and  upward  Mammon  must 
fall.  For  Mammon  is  the  parent  of  typhoid  and  tuber- 
culosis; Mammon  drives  our  daughters  into  prostitu- 
tion and  our  sons  into  prison;  Mammon  builds  the 
slum  and  populates  it ;  Mammon  permits  some  to  feast 
sumptuously  and  to  play,  while  it  compels  others  to 
toil  and  sweat  and  gnaw  crusts;  Mammon  creates  the 
conflict  of  classes  and  prepares  revolutions;  Mammon 
is  the  arch-enemy  of  God  and  man. 

How  futile,  in  view  of  this  teaching  of  Jesus,  is 
most  of  what  passes  for  religion.  "To  such  a  pass 
has  the  Church  come  that  it  fights  under  the  banner 
of  Jesus  against  his  Gospel.  It  wields  the  sword  of 
the  spirit — to  quench  all  that  is  spiritual.  It  uses  the 
word  of  God — in  order  to  falsify  the  divine.  It  is 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH      2$ 

pious,  but  its  piety  is  godlessness."  *  The  man  who 
piously  trusts  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  to  save  him,2  but 
owns  a  tenement  on  which  there  is  no  fire  escape,  will 
find  that  the  blood  of  Jesus  was  shed  in  vain,  so  far 
as  he  is  concerned,  if  that  house  burns  and  destroys 
the  lives  of  its  inmates.  For  that  man  is  nothing  less 
than  a  murderer,  and  a  far  greater  criminal  than  the 
man  who  in  passion  takes  the  life  of  his  fellow,  for 
he  slays  in  cold  blood  and  for  mere  sordidness.  That 
sort  of  faith  without  works  is  the  deadest  of  all  things 
that  profess  to  be  spiritual.  The  Christianity  of  our 
day  is  mainly  of  that  type;  it  is  a  Christianity  of 
ostentatious  orthodoxy,  of  large  professions,  that 
scorns  the  real  Gospel  of  Jesus.  The  hard  self-right- 
eousness of  the  Christian  world  rules  it  out  of  the 
kingdom  of  brotherhood.  Now,  as  of  old,  it  is  easier 
to  bring  the  Prodigal  home  than  to  soften  the  proud 
elder  son  and  make  him  a  true  child  of  his  gracious 
Father. 

Mutual  dependence  and  service.  Jesus  could  not 
grant  their  mother's  prayer  for  the  sons  of  Zebedee, 
and  place  them  on  his  right  hand  and  his  left  in  the 

Gutter,  "They  Must,"  p.  53. 

*  The  late  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  inserted  in  his  will  the  fol- 
lowing profession  of  faith :  "I  commit  my  soul  into  the  hands 
of  my  Saviour,  in  full  confidence  that,  having  redeemed  it  and 
washed  it  in  His  most  precious  blood,  He  will  present  it  faultless 
before  the  throne  of  my  Heavenly  Father;  and  I  entreat  my 
children  to  maintain  and  defend,  at  all  hazard,  and  at  any  cost 
of  personal  sacrifice,  the  blessed  doctrine  of  complete  atonement 
of  sin  through  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  once  offered,  and 
through  that  alone."  This  was  hailed  by  the  orthodox  religious 
press  as  "a  wonderful  testimony."  It  was. 


24  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

kingdom,  because  these  seats  were  not  to  be  given 
away  as  a  favor,  being  reserved  as  a  reward  for 
service.  The  high  places  are  for  those  who  seek  the 
good  of  others,  not  their  own — for  those  who  drink 
their  Master's  cup  of  sacrifice,  for  those  who  are  bap- 
tized with  the  baptism  of  his  vicarious  suffering. 

This  is  what  Jesus  meant  by  his  teaching  regarding 
stewardship.  He  taught  men  that  they  do  not  own, 
but  owe ;  that  their  rights  are  far  less  important  than 
their  duties.  Power,  wealth,  learning,  are  not  means 
of  ministering  to  one's  selfishness,  but  opportunities 
for  the  service  of  one's  fellows.  Those  who  have 
most  must  serve  most.  The  greatest  in  the  kingdom 
is  he  that  makes  fullest  and  wisest  use  of  his  oppor- 
tunities and  rises  to  eminence  as  servant  of  all.  Stew- 
ardship is  the  exact  opposite  of  exploitation,  the  sel- 
fish using  of  one's  fellows  to  advance  one's  own  inter- 
est and  increase  one's  own  wealth.  Stewardship  is 
as  exactly  opposed  also  to  the  selfishness  of  the  idle 
rich,  who  devote  all  their  energies  to  "pleasure" — and 
secure  only  their  own  boredom. 

Brotherhood  does  not  imply  that  all  men  shall  serve 
in  the  same  way,  or  that  the  service  of  all  is  equally 
valuable;  but  brotherhood  does  imply  that  all  shall 
serve.  The  man  who  refuses  to  serve  denies  his 
brotherhood  and  puts  himself  outside  the  pale  of 
human  society.  There  is  no  place  for  such  a  man  in 
a  rightly  ordered  world.  He  is  the  true  outlaw,  and 
by  his  own  act.  This  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  His 
disciples  must  proclaim  and  exemplify  it,  and  let 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH      2$ 

Nietzsche  rage  and  Bernard   Shaw  imagine  a  vain 
thing. 

Active  good-will  to  all.  This  is  the  "altruism,"  of 
which  Comte  and  all  whom  he  has  influenced  have 
had  so  much  to  say.  But  Paul  long  anticipated  Comte, 
when  he  said,  "Let  every  man  look  not  upon  his 
own  things,  but  also  upon  the  things  of  others."  And 
Jesus  was  before  Paul,  declaring,  as  the  highest  ideal 
of  men  in  their  social  relations,  "Whatsoever  things 
ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even 
so  unto  them."  The  ideal  of  brotherhood  is  not  merely 
to  abstain  from  doing  evil  to  men,  but  actively  to  do 
them  good.  And  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  inflexibly  main- 
tains this  as  the  practical  side  of  religion,  without 
which  no  piety  is  of  least  avail.  "For  if  a  man  love 
not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love 
God  whom  he  hath  not  seen?"  The  principle  is  as 
sweeping  as  it  obviously  is  true.  And  here  is  one 
application  of  it  that  every  man  should  heed:  If  a 
man  does  not  realize,  abominate,  repent  and  forsake 
his  sins  against  his  brother  whom  he  has  seen,  how 
can  he  have  any  genuine  realization  of  sin  against  a 
God  whom  he  has  not  seen;  and  how  can  he  repent 
sin  unrealized? 

IV 

But  why  call  this  a  new  Gospel?  Has  not  this  al- 
ways been  understood  to  be  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
and  has  it  not  always  been  preached?  The  words 
have  indeed  been  declared,  but  the  declaration  has 


26  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

been  accompanied  by  explanations  and  exceptions 
that  have  practically  evacuated  them  of  all  meaning. 
There  has  been  formal  profession  of  belief  in  the 
teachings  of  Jesus,  while  Christians  have  shown  by 
their  conduct  that  they  have  never  understood  his 
precepts,  and  so  far  as  they  have  understood  have 
made  but  the  feeblest  attempt  to  obey  them.  The  new 
idea  of  the  Gospel  is  to  press  home  the  duty  of  full 
obedience. 

For  Jesus  shows  plainly  in  his  kingdom  teaching 
that  he  did  not  have  in  mind  merely  or  chiefly  the 
salvation  of  individuals,  but  a  social  ideal.  He  com- 
prehended, as  his  followers  have  not  comprehended 
until  lately,  that  salvation  of  the  individual  is  all 
but  impossible,  so  long  as  he  is  dealt  with  merely  as 
an  individual;  and  that  a  Gospel  that  deals  with  men 
as  individuals  accomplishes  only  a  partial  salvation. 
The  Christianity  of  Jesus,  with  its  fundamental  con- 
ception of  a  Heavenly  Father,  and  all  men  brothers 
in  his  great  family,  is  a  social  religion.  The  Christian- 
ity that  has  prevailed  for  centuries,  enthroning  a  Sov- 
ereign in  the  heavens,  who  rules  according  to  law, 
imposes  penalties  for  disobedience  and  deals  with  men 
as  individual  violators  of  law,  is  a  religion  not  only 
quite  different  from  that  of  Jesus,  but  utterly  incom- 
patible with  his. 

And  Jesus  understood,  just  as  we  are  coming  to 
understand,  that  his  idea  of  universal  brotherhood, 
wherever  it  operates  and  just  so  far  as  it  operates, 
effects  the  transformation  of  human  relations,  and 
therefore  of  social  institutions.  As  men  progress  in 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH      2/ 

goodness,  that  is,  in  likeness  to  God,  the  desire  to 
sacrifice  self  for  others  will  take  larger  place  in  their 
lives,  selfishness  will  be  driven  out,  and  those  social 
institutions  that  rest  on  selfishness  will  give  place  to 
relations  that  rest  on  unselfish  love  and  are  inspired 
by  mutual  good-will.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  declares 
in  no  uncertain  sound  that,  until  a  man  begins  to  show 
this  divine  spirit  in  his  daily  life,  he  does  not  know 
the  meaning  of  salvation.  And  to  say  that  the  honest 
acceptance  of  this  Gospel  by  the  professed  followers 
of  Jesus  would  transform  society  is  not  speaking 
lightly  or  unadvisedly.  "It  is  useless  to  nurse  any 
illusions,"  says  Pouget;  "the  day  when  it  would  be 
tried  to  introduce  into  social  relations,  in  all  their 
strata,  a  strict  honesty  and  a  scrupulous  good  will, 
nothing  would  remain  standing — neither  industry  nor 
commerce  nor  finance — absolutely  nothing."  x  The 
bona  fide  application  of  the  Golden  Rule  for  a  week 
by  everybody  would  so  change  the  world  that  it  would 
be  simply  unrecognizable.  But  we  do  not  live  under 
the  Golden  Rule;  we  live  under  the  rule  of  gold. 

The  current  Christianity  is  not  consistent  even  in  its 
individualism.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  has  much  to 
teach  it  regarding  the  worth  of  the  individual  man, 
and  thereby  takes  issue  anew  with  modern  industrial- 
ism and  certain  dachshund  2  economists.  "How  much 
then  is  a  man  of  more  value  than  a  sheep,"  said  Jesus. 

1  "Sabotage,"  p.  87. 

2  The  dachshund  has  been  described  as  "a  dog-and-a-half  long 
and  half-a-dog  high,"  which  irresistibly  suggests  those  econo- 
mists whose  extent  of  knowledge  about  things  material  so  mark- 
edly exceeds  their  moral  height. 


28  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

But  the  modern  capitalist  knows  better ;  he  says,  "How 
much  then  is  a  man  of  less  value  than  a  mule,"  and 
in  his  mines  he  takes  good  care  of  his  mules,  while 
he  is  reckless  of  human  lives.  The  Gospel  of  uni- 
versal brotherhood  is  the  only  demulcent  for  such 
social  brutalities. 

What  does  the  regeneration  of  society  mean?  is  one 
of  the  most  frequent  questions  from  those  who  lend 
incredulous  ears  to  the  new  Gospel.  The  very  putting 
of  the  question  shows  that  beneath  it  lies  an  utter 
incomprehension  of  what  society  is.  Society  is  not 
an  aggregation  of  atoms,  a  heap  of  human  sand,  so 
to  speak.  When  the  student  of  social  phenomena  has 
counted  all  the  separate  facts  and  events  about  men 
he  has  not  accounted  for  society;  just  as  the  human 
body  is  something  more  than  an  assemblage  of  arms, 
legs,  eyes  and  other  organs,  and  that  something  is 
life.  Regeneration  of  society  means  therefore  a 
transformation  of  life,  a  complete  change;  it  means 
that  a  new  spirit  must  take  possession  of  the  social 
group,  so  that  it  will  of  necessity  live  a  new  life. 
Society  implies  institutions,  and  those  institutions  ex- 
press an  idea.  What  is  the  all-prevailing  idea  of 
present  social  institutions?  Selfishness.  What  would 
be  the  idea  prevailing  throughout  a  truly  Christian  soci- 
ety? Love,  brotherhood,  service.  This  is  what  is 
meant  by  social  regeneration.  The  regeneration  of 
individuals  will  never  produce  the  regeneration  of  so- 
ciety, until  these  regenerated  individuals  pour  their 
regenerate  life  into  social  institutions  and  transform 
them.  This  they  have  never  attempted  to  do,  have 


THE  GOSPEL   AND   THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH       29 

never  dreamed  of  doing,  have  never  considered  possi- 
ble, until  very  recently.  And  even  now  it  is  an  ideal 
vehemently  opposed  by  the  Christianity  that  lives  in 
the  past.  Father  Vaughn  says,  "Socialism  makes  for 
a  Paradise  beneath  the  moon,  Christianity  leads  to  a 
Heaven  beyond  the  stars."  *  But  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
regards  these  aims,  not  as  antithetical,  but  as  comple- 
mentary. The  true  disciple  of  Jesus  chooses  both: 
with  the  socialist  he  strives  to  make  this  world  a  Para- 
dise beneath  the  moon,  while  with  the  Catholic  he 
also  hopes  for  the  Heaven  beyond  the  stars. 

A  new  Gospel — yes,  but  it  might  quite  as  truly  be 
called  the  old  Gospel,  which,  after  long  eclipse,  is 
again  beginning  to  be  proclaimed  with  power.  It  is 
true  that  what  has  been  called  a  gospel  has  always 
been  proclaimed;  for  ages  the  great  effort  of  those 
who  called  themselves  Christians  has  been  to  win  the 
rest  of  the  world  to  their  Christianity.  And  we  are 
still  told  by  many  that  to  continue  this  effort  will 
prove  not  only  a  better  but  a  quicker  solution  of  all 
social  problems  and  a  more  effectual  redress  of  all 
social  wrongs  than  direct  effort  at  social  reform.  It 
is  one  of  those  cases  in  which  a  flank  movement  is 
more  effective  than  a  frontal  attack.  But  reflection 
brings  doubts.  We  recall  that  this  method  has  now 
been  tried  for  nineteen  centuries  and  our  social  prob- 
lems are  little  affected.  The  world  might  be  filled 
with  such  Christians  as  we  have  to-day — speaking  of 
them  "by  and  large"  and  admitting  a  notable  minority 
of  whom  this  is  not  true — with  very  slight  result  to 

1  "Socialism  from  a  Christian  Standpoint,"  p.  236. 


3O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

social  evils.  For  our  present-day  Christians  are  little 
instructed  in  the  social  teachings  of  Jesus  and  in  con- 
sequence make  no  appreciable  attempt  to  apply  his 
teachings  to  social  facts.  The  multiplication  of  such 
Christians  to  any  conceivable  extent  would  only  re- 
sult in  adding  to  the  present  socially  ineffective 
churches  an  indefinite  mass  of  useless,  amorphous 
piety. 

The  Church  does  not  make  a  successful  appeal  to 
many  high-minded  people  to-day,  because  it  has  be- 
come an  object  of  service,  not  a  means  of  rendering 
service.  Instead  of  seeking  first  the  kingdom  of  God, 
it  has  sought  first  its  own  extension,  wealth  and 
power.  Its  energies  are  absorbed  in  holding  meetings 
and  raising  money.  The  Church  that  spends  all  its 
energies  in  merely  keeping  alive  is  already  virtually 
dead.  The  people  who  are  estranged  from  the  Church 
have  become  estranged  because  they  are  ethically  in 
advance  of  the  Church.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  is  mainly 
believed,  preached  and  lived  by  those  outside  of  the 
churches.  Within  the  churches  there  is  a  vast  quan- 
tity of  piety,  but  very  little  of  the  religion  that  Jesus 
taught.  A  gospel  is  believed  and  proclaimed  by  the 
churches,  and  passably  lived,  but  it  is  not  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus. 

What  has  for  ages  been  proclaimed  as  gospel,  and 
is  still  heard  from  the  great  majority  of  Christian 
pulpits,  is  that  salvation  consists  in  man's  release  from 
a  legal  penalty.  Man  has  violated  the  just  law  of  a 
holy  God,  and  in  consequence  the  wrath  of  God  rests 
on  him,  entailing  suffering  in  this  world  and  endless 


THE  GOSPEL  AND   THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH       3! 

misery  in  the  life  to  come.  God  sent  his  Son  to 
pay  this  penalty,  which  he  did  in  his  death  on  the 
cross;  and  those  who  believe  in  him,  and  those  only, 
are  delivered  from  the  penalty  that  he  has  borne  in 
their  behalf.  It  is  not  the  preachers  alone  who  thus 
conceive  the  gospel;  the  laymen  wish  this  sort  of  thing, 
and  only  this,  to  be  preached  to  them.  Ministers  are 
more  open  to  new  ideas  about  religion  than  laymen. 
The  mental  spissitude  of  the  average  business  man 
makes  it  almost  impossible  for  him  to  adjust  himself 
to  a  new  religious  idea  or  a  new  method.  The  minds 
of  such  men  become  muscle  bound,  so  to  speak;  their 
wits  get  "charley  horse." 

Not  long  ago  a  distinguished  layman,  addressing  a 
great  denominational  gathering,  made  a  plea  for  the 
preaching  of  what  he  called  "the  pure  and  simple 
gospel."  And  he  denned  his  meaning  in  words 
quoted  from  an  orthodox  preacher :  "We  should  con- 
stantly hold  up  Sinai  and  Calvary  to  mankind.  The 
vicarious  atonement  should  be  emphasized.  The  sac- 
rifice of  Christ  should  be  presented  daily.  His  deity 
and  mediatorial  work  should  be  constantly  kept  be- 
fore the  people.  The  whole  gospel  and  nothing  but 
the  gospel  should  be  preached."  Would  it  be  possible 
in  the  same  space  to  state  anything  more  widely  dif- 
fering from  the  Gospel  that  Jesus  proclaimed?  It 
might  be  daring  to  say  that  Jesus  knew  nothing  of 
such  a  gospel,  but  he  certainly  proclaimed  something 
absolutely  foreign  to  this,  if  the  New  Testament  re- 
ports him  truly.  It  follows  then  that,  if  Jesus  knew 


32  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

what  his  Gospel  is,   the  modern  preacher  does  not 
know. 


A  new  Gospel  we  must  have,  and  we  are  beginning 
to  hear  it.  It  is  nothing  else  than  proclamation  of 
the  message  of  Jesus,  "The  Kingdom  of  God  is  at 
hand."  This  is  assertion  of  the  possibility  of  a 
transformed  society,  in  which  every  department  of 
man's  activity — politics,  science,  art,  education,  busi- 
ness, no  less  than  religion — shall  be  inspired  and  con- 
trolled by  the  ethics  of  Jesus.  The  Master  did  not 
summon  his  disciples  to  prepare  themselves  for  an- 
other world,  but  to  remake  this  world.  For  nineteen 
centuries  those  who  have  borne  the  name  of  Christ 
have,  with  few  exceptions;  misread  his  message  and 
consequently  have  neglected  their  duty.  The  new 
social  awakening  that  is  the  most  characteristic  thing 
about  our  generation  has  led  naturally  and  inevitably 
to  an  awakening  of  the  Church,  new  understanding 
of  the  Gospel,  and  will  lead  to  new  alignment  of  all 
Christian  forces. 

This  is  evident  in  the  new  idea  that  is  coming  to 
be  entertained  of  the  mission  of  Christianity  and  the 
function  of  the  Church.  "Missions"  a  generation  ago 
meant  exclusively  the  giving  of  the  gospel  to  the 
heathen,  and  the  heathen  were  attractive  to  most 
Christians  in  inverse  ratio  to  their  nearness.  The 
Church  is  more  missionary  than  ever  to-day,  but  it 
has  a  larger  conception  of  its  mission.  Despite  all 


THE  GOSPEL   AND   THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH       33 

satire,  Boorrioboola-Gha  is  still  an  object  of  Christian 
effort  and  a  subject  of  Christian  hope,  but  not  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  heathen  around  the  corner.  And  it 
is  becoming  clearer  every  day  that  the  chief  obstacle 
to  all  Christian  propaganda,  at  home  or  abroad,  is  the 
sinister  fact  that  Christians  do  not  believe  and  make 
but  feeble  attempts  to  practice  the  truth  that  they 
invite  others  to  embrace.  The  character  of  the  aver- 
age "Christian"  in  Asia,  as  the  least  intelligent  hea- 
then easily  perceives,  is  little  influenced  by  Christian 
ideals.  And  the  more  intelligent  heathen  can  as  eas- 
ily perceive  that  even  the  Christian  missionaries,  while 
free  from  the  vices  of  others,  are  but  half-hearted  in 
their  acceptance  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 

The  Church  has  been  the  greatest  witness  to  human 
brotherhood,  but  in  all  the  ages  what  she  has  testified 
in  word  she  has  almost  invariably  denied  in  deed. 
She  denies  to-day.  But  her  eyes  are  opening;  she 
is  beginning  to  see  that  word  and  deed  must  be  made 
to  correspond  and  become  one  witness,  and  that  the 
Church  which  fails  to  bear  this  witness  is  no  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Christian  sentiments  are  not  suffi- 
cient; conduct,  character  corresponding  to  the  ethics 
of  Jesus,  is  what  the  world  needs — conduct  and  char- 
acter corresponding  to  the  actual  teachings  of  Jesus, 
and  not  to  some  conventional  standard  far  removed 
from  his  teachings.  Men  are  coming  to  apprehend 
more  clearly  the  great  value  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus, 
in  its  conformity  to  reality,  in  its  essential  practicality. 
The  defect  of  our  social  activities  at  present  is  that 
a  host  of  well-intentioned  people  are  engaged,  with 


34  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

lavish  expenditure  of  time  and  energy  and  money,  in 
doing  perfectly  futile  things  and  even  harmful  things. 
There  are  giants  to  be  fought,  dragons  to  be  slain, 
captives  to  be  released,  as  in  the  brave  days  of  old; 
and  the  social  reformer  goes  against  them  with  armor 
of  pasteboard  and  sword  of  lath.  So  much  misdi- 
rected effort  is  really  tragic.  It  is  not  enough  to 
mean  well  in  this  matter  of  social  amelioration.  It 
is  above  all  necessary  to  see  clearly  and  to  think 
straight  in  order  to  do  the  right  thing. 

It  is  well  for  the  Church  that  her  awakening  has 
come,  even  if  vision  is  still  clouded  and  effort  largely 
wasted.  It  is  her  only  hope  of  salvation.  A  healthy 
and  vigorous  religion  can  no  more  result  from  the 
conditions  of  economic  restraint  and  social  wrong 
that  are  the  foundation  of  our  American  civilization 
than  grapes  can  be  gathered  from  thorns  or  figs  from 
thistles.  And  what  is  true  of  the  great  institution  for 
spiritual  culture  is  equally  true  of  its  twin  institution 
for  the  culture  of  mind,  the  university.  The  scholar 
must  choose  between  his  cloistered  pursuit  of  pure 
science  and  social  welfare,  or  lose  his  hold  upon  his 
age.  The  University  of  Wisconsin  has  shown  all 
schools  of  higher  learning  how  such  institutions  must 
hereafter  relate  themselves  to  the  everyday  affairs  of 
the  entire  community.  Both  the  Church  and  the  uni- 
versity must  realize  that  their  office  is  not  merely  edu- 
cational, or  inspirational,  but  one  of  practical  leader- 
ship. They  have  been  too  long  content  with  being 
teachers  of  the  world.  It  is  not  denied  that  they  have 
discharged  this  function  well :  they  have  together  fur- 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH       35 

nished  the  basis  of  knowledge  and  experience  for 
every  forward  movement  of  the  race.  The  ethics 
taught  by  both  have  saturated  literature  and  law, 
have  determined  the  policies  of  nations  and  have 
shaped  social  ideals.  But  they  have  been  content  to 
let  the  actual  work  of  social  regeneration  be  accom- 
plished by  other  agencies. 

It  is  quite  true,  as  has  been  pointed  out  to  weari- 
ness, that  the  leaders  of  social  reform,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  owe  their  training  to  Christian  Churches 
and  schools,  and  that  their  work  could  not  be  suc- 
cessfully carried  on  save  with  Christian  aid  and  in 
Christian  atmosphere.  But  now  the  Church  espe- 
cially is  called  to  do  more  than  train  leaders  and  cre- 
ate an  atmosphere:  it  must  do  no  less  than  take  the 
active  leadership  in  social  reform.  And  the  univer- 
sity must  keep  step.  A  certain  type  of  Church  is 
obsolete:  the  Church  content  with  orthodoxy  and 
careless  about  the  kingdom,  the  Church  that  thinks 
right  but  never  acts,  the  Church  that  in  place  of  a 
power-house  maintains  a  cold  storage  plant.  Chris- 
tianity means  everything  to  the  world  or  it  means 
nothing.  We  must  either  practice  during  the  week 
what  we  pray  and  sing  on  Sunday  or  give  over  alto- 
gether our  Sunday  singing  and  praying. 

This  requires  of  us,  of  course,  greatly  enlarged 
conception  of  the  field  of  Christian  activities,  a  break 
with  conventional  ideas  that  is  schocking  to  not  a 
few  excellent  Christian  people.  But  to  be  shocked 
is  not  infrequently  good  for  people,  it  is  often  in- 
dispensable stimulus.  We  need  a  new  religious  ter- 


36  THE    GOSPEL    OF   JESUS 

minology,  and  while  this  is  making  we  must  contrive 
as  best  we  may  to  put  a  new  content  into  the  old 
words.  To  use  the  religious  vocabulary  of  our 
grandfathers,  from  which  all  real  meaning  has  evap- 
orated, is  cant.  We  must  vitalize  words  again  or 
drop  them.  In  the  old  days  the  convert  was  re- 
quired to  "renounce  the  devil  and  all  his  works." 
The  requirement  may  remain,  but  we  must  get  a  new 
conception  of  the  devil's  "works."  While  the  Church 
slept  he  has  captured  the  world  of  business,  and  has 
fashioned  it  into  a  fine  specimen  of  his  handicraft. 
The  twentieth-century  Christian  must  not  merely  "re- 
nounce" this  work,  he  must  actively  combat  it.  The 
Church  has  always  required  Christians  to  separate 
themselves  from  the  "world" — some  Churches  have 
been  more  urgent  than  others  about  this,  but  all  have 
made  it  at  least  a  nominal  requirement — but  the 
twentieth-century  Christian  must  see  that  the  "world" 
is  something  more  and  something  more  deadly  than 
fine  dress,  jewels  and  a  few  tabooed  amusements. 
Our  "world"  is  organized  evil,  and  Christians  are 
so  far  from  having  renounced  that,  that  most  of 
them  are  busily  engaged  at  this  moment  in  extending 
and  completing  this  evil  organization. 

And  so  we  need  a  new  definition  of  "sin";  we 
must  put  into  this  dead  word  a  new  living  content 
that  corresponds  to  present  fact.  In  the  past  this 
word  has  suggested  almost  exclusively  the  relations 
of  men  to  God.  It  is  now  imperatively  necessary 
that  we  think  more  of  our  relations  to  our  fellows 
and  the  ways  in  which  we  are  all  sinning  together. 


THE  GOSPEL  AND   THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH       37 

There  is  crying  need  of  deeper  realization  on  the 
part  of  "good"  people  of  those  social  sins  that  are 
more  heinous  than  any  individual  transgressions,  and 
more  earnest  seeking  after  that  social  righteousness 
which  is  the  thing  just  now  most  urgently  demanded 
among  us.  The  chief  obstacle  to  immediate  social 
progress  is  the  satisfaction  of  "good"  people  with 
the  old  individualistic  standards  of  goodness,  and 
their  refusal  to  see  that  such  a  type  of  goodness  is 
now  hardly  distinguishable  from  badness.  And  yet 
we  have  the  word  of  Jesus  himself  for  it,  that  to 
keep  one's  own  skirts  clean  and  pass  by  on  the  other 
side  is  highly  culpable.  We  need  a  new  "conviction 
of  sin,"  not  less  acute  than  the  older  type,  and  far 
more  practical.  It  is  the  sins  that  men  commit  in 
their  corporate  associations,  as  citizens  and  as  men  of 
business,  and  in  the  innumerable  and  all-influential 
social  relations,  such  as  were  unknown  to  past  ages, 
that  are  to-day  most  lethal  and  that  call  loudest  for 
repentance.  The  Church  has  long  had  a  list  of  seven 
deadly  sins;  we  need  a  new  list  for  our  time,  and 
it  would  run  somewhat  like  this:  exploitation,  profit, 
special  privilege,  graft,  parasitism,  waste,  inefficiency. 
And  we  have  great  need  to  join  in  the  Litany,  "From 
these  and  all  other  like  sins  against  our  kind,  good 
Lord,  deliver  us." 

With  this  new  idea  of  sin  as  socialized  transgres- 
sion will  go  of  necessity  a  new  idea  of  deliverance 
from  sin,  or  salvation.  It  will  not  be  deliverance 
from  penalty,  not  merely  transformation  of  character, 
but  radically  different  social  conduct.  This  will  in- 


38  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

volve  a  new  standard  of  conversion.  A  man  who 
professes  that  he  has  become  a  Christian  must  be 
expected  to  do  something  more  than  relate  an  "ex- 
perience" that  indicates  his  coming  into  new  relations 
with  God.  We  have  assumed,  in  defiance  of  our 
experience,  that  when  a  man  gets  right  with  God 
(or  thinks  he  has)  he  will  as  a  consequence  get  right 
with  his  fellow-men.  As  matter  of  fact,  we  have  no 
means  of  knowing  whether  a  convert  has  got  right 
with  God,  but  we  do  know  beyond  a  peradventure 
that  most  converts  have  never  got  right  with  their 
fellows.  The  good,  pious  Christian  people  who  fill 
our  churches  every  Sunday  are,  for  the  most  part, 
utterly  indifferent  about  their  relations  to  their  fel- 
lows. It  is  not  their  fault.  They  have  all  their 
lives  been  taught  that  "sin"  is  sin  against  God,  and 
that  the  remedy  for  sin  is  to  seek  pardon  of  God, 
and  this  once  obtained  the  sin  is  washed  away.  They 
have  no  idea  of  social  sins. 

Is  it  not,  then,  too  evident  to  require  argument 
that  we  sorely  need  conversions  that  will  change  men's 
entire  social  relations  and  activities?  Homely  coun- 
try people  used  to  say  of  a  stingy  church  member 
that  "when  he  was  baptized  he  left  his  pocketbook  at 
home."  The  ledger  of  the  modern  business  man  has 
not  yet  been  baptized.  More  than  any  other  conver- 
sion to-day  is  demanded  conversion  of  the  factory, 
the  counting-room  and  the  bank.  Greed  for  gain, 
and  lack  of  scruple  as  to  means,  have  together  made 
of  the  world  of  affairs  an  Inferno  surpassing  the 
highest  flights  of  Dante's  imagination.  Honored 


THE  GOSPEL  AND   THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH       39 

Christian  philanthropists  get  their  money  for  the  en- 
dowment of  universities  and  charities  from  the  blood 
and  bones  of  their  brothers;  lovely  and  cultured 
Christian  women  derive  the  incomes  on  which  their 
womanhood  is  nourished  from  the  tears  and  groans 
of  their  sisters,  and  from  the  forced  labor  of  little 
children.  Monstrous!  incredible!  chorus  the  "good" 
Christian  people.  A  writer  is  most  culpable  to  spread 
such  slanders!  And  just  there  is  the  most  hopeless 
feature  of  the  social  situation:  the  "good"  people 
will  not  believe  the  facts,  will  not  listen  to  them  if 
they  can  help  it,  shut  eyes  and  ears  and  will  not  be 
informed  about  our  social  problems.  Their  cry  is, 
"Preach  the  simple  Gospel." 

But  this  is  the  simple  Gospel.  This  is  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus.  Nobody  can  seriously  study  His  words 
and  have  the  least  doubt  about  it.  The  Christian 
preacher  may  still  determine,  as  Paul  did  at  Corinth, 
not  to  know  anything  among  men  save  Jesus  Christ, 
and  him  crucified.  But  the  social  Gospel  gives  new 
significance  to  the  cross.  The  "preaching  of  the 
cross"  has  too  often  meant  the  preaching  of  some 
mechanical  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  and  such 
preaching  has  lost  whatever  power  it  may  once  have 
had.  The  cross,  as  Jesus  and  Paul  proclaimed  it, 
means  self-immolation.  The  cross  saves  no  man  until 
he  has  himself  been  nailed  to  it.  Not  till  we  have 
learned  from  Jesus  the  secret  of  sacrificial  love,  and 
have  ourselves  practiced  it,  has  the  cross  any  meaning 
or  efficacy  for  us.  Vicarious  sacrifice  is  sacrifice  of 
ourselves  for  others,  and  only  so  does  Christ's  sacri- 


4O  THE    GOSPEL    OF   JESUS 

fice  in  our  behalf  become  operative.  It  has  been 
well  said:  "It  is  the  uncrucified  Christianity  that 
speaks  in  the  modern  pulpit  and  sits  in  the  church 
pew  that  is  driving  the  passion  for  humanity  into 
other  channels  than  the  Church." 

Our  enlarged  idea  of  salvation  is  leading  us  to 
comprehend  that  no  deliverance  of  men  can  be  per- 
manent that  does  not  include  a  saved  environment. 
The  physician  who  should  cure  a  man  of  typhoid  and 
then  advise  or  permit  him  to  adopt  a  diet  of  typhoid 
germs  would  be  regarded  as  insane,  even  though  one 
who  has  had  typhoid  is  presumed  to  be  immune  to 
a  second  attack.  The  percentage  of  those  who  are 
not  immune  is  large  enough  to  prohibit  such  a  risk. 
But  we  turn  our  "saved"  people  back  to  their  old 
environment  and  expect  the  new  life  to  survive.  Even 
those  Christians  who  have  been  fortunate  enough  al- 
ways to  have  an  environment  favorable  to  all  the 
virtues  often  confess  that  the  maintenance  of  a  Chris- 
tian character  is  not  too  easy  a  task.  But  many  who 
are  rescued  in  an  environment  in  which  there  is 
only  incitement  to  evil,  without  being  taken  out  of 
the  environment,  after  a  little  time  of  desperate 
struggle  go  under  again.  We  cannot  accept  as  our 
ideal  anything  less  than  a  saved  soul  in  a  saved  body 
living  in  a  saved  community.  Short  of  that  we  have 
an  incomplete  and  uncertain  deliverance,  with  no 
promise  of  permanence.  The  old  method  of  hand- 
picked-fruit  evangelism  no  longer  meets  modern  so- 
cial conditions  and  needs.  To  get  a  man  to  profess 
himself  saved,  and  then  turn  him  loose  in  the  com- 


THE  GOSPEL  AND   THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH       4! 

munity  with  a  "God  bless  you,  brother,"  is  not  mak- 
ing headway  against  the  powers  of  evil.  It  need  not 
be  abandoned  by  those  who  are  wedded  to  it,  but  it 
must  be  supplemented  by  those  who  are  more  awake 
to  modern  conditions  and  modern  needs.  To  hasten 
the  coming  of  the  kingdom  and  promote  the  uplift 
of  mankind  is  a  man's  job;  it  is  the  biggest  game  that 
men  of  brains  and  brawn  can  play.  The  smallest 
game  in  the  world  is  the  money  game. 

This  awakening  of  the  Church  will  bring  us  a  new 
ethic.  We  have  had  ethics  made  by  the  rich  for 
the  poor,  by  the  strong  for  the  weak;  we  are  on  the 
way  toward  ethics  for  all.  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself"  has  been  hitherto  interpreted 
as  a  precept  to  govern  individuals  in  their  mutual 
conduct;  we  are  learning  to  give  it  a  social  inter- 
pretation. The  result  of  the  old  individualism  has 
proved  to  be  that  men  believe  they  are  keeping  Christ's 
words  while  they  are  gigantic  sinners  in  their  social 
deeds.  There  are  men  among  us  not  a  few,  rich 
beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice,  who  are  full  of  the 
milk  of  human  kindness  toward  poor  John  Doe,  and 
will  do  almost  anything  to  help  the  individual  sufferer 
from  disease  or  poverty,  who  have  yet  done  more 
than  any  thousand  men  of  any  other  generation  to 
make  men  poor  and  keep  men  poor.  As  theirs  is  a 
socialized  sin  against  the  neighbor,  there  must  be  a 
socialized  love  of  neighbor  before  the  precept  of  Jesus 
can  be  obeyed.  Many  a  man  still  unctuously  repeats, 
"The  wages  of  sin  is  death,"  thinking  meanwhile  of 
his  brother's  drunkenness  or  lechery  or  lying  or  thiev- 


42  THE   GOSPEL    OF   JESUS 

ery,  but  never  for  a  moment  giving  thought  to  his 
own  rapacity  and  greed,  the  sins  whose  wages  are 
paid  in  the  death  of  those  whom  he  daily  crushes 
into  deeper  poverty  and  woe. 

The  old  ethics  borrowed  its  favorite  ideas  from 
monarchy  and  aristocracy.  Men  were  exhorted  to 
be  content  "in  the  sphere  where  God  had  placed 
them."  But  we  now  understand  that  "spheres"  are 
man-made,  not  God-ordained,  and  they  are  passing 
away.  These  ideas  of  conduct  we  are  replacing  by 
ethics  founded  on  human  brotherhood,  which  again 
rests  on  a  common  divine  sonship.  And  so,  com- 
mands like  "Thou  shalt  not  kill"  are  seen  to  have 
been  inadequately  understood.  "Thou  shalt  not  steal" 
applies  to  those  who  possess,  as  well  as  to  those  who 
take,  property.  The  stealing  of  capitalism  must  be 
recognized,  repented  and  renounced.  The  murder  of 
war  and  industrialism  must  be  made  as  repulsive  to 
the  conscience  as  individual  homicide.  We  now  send 
the  murderer  of  one  to  the  gallows,  or  the  electric 
chair;  we  enroll  the  killer  of  hundreds  among  our 
"best  citizens";  while  the  slayer  of  thousands  we 
exalt  to  the  presidency. 

Many  deprecate  the  present  interest  in  social  re- 
ligion ;  they  fear  that  it  is  a  dangerous  tendency.  The 
function  of  the  Church,  they  remind  us,  may  be  com- 
pared to  an  electric  dynamo:  it  is  the  function  of 
generating  moral  and  spiritual  energy.  If  the  Church 
takes  the  lead  in  social  reforms,  it  must  choose  be- 
tween political  programs,  and  eventually  it  will  be 
drawn  into  that  entangling  alliance  with  the  State 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH      43 

from  which  it  has  only  lately  been  freed  after  ages 
of  struggle.  But  the  risk  must  be  run,  if  there 
really  is  a  risk,  for  a  dynamo  is  a  useless  thing  until 
it  has  been  connected  up  to  machinery  by  which  its 
power  may  be  utilized  in  doing  some  of  the  world's 
work.  The  Church  has  too  long  been  an  unconnected 
dynamo;  it  has  generated  vast  quantities  of  power 
that  has  never  been  utilized  for  the  improvement  of 
society;  its  problem  now  is  to  get  its  power  turned 
on  to  the  social  machinery. 

This  is  only  to  say  in  other  words  that  the  Church 
has  been  too  blind  to  see  fact  and  truth,  too  slow  to 
take  up  the  work  to  which  its  divine  Founder  called 
it;  and  the  work  of  social  regeneration  has  been 
undertaken,  and  thus  far  has  been  carried  forward, 
in  independence  of  the  Church,  and  to  an  increasing 
degree  by  men  in  scant  sympathy  with  the  Church. 
If  this  purblind  policy  continues,  if  the  Church  is 
to  be  ruled  by  stupid  conservatism,  men  who  desire 
the  progress  of  humanity,  and  feel  called  of  God  to 
devote  their  lives  to  that  purpose,  will  have  to  forsake 
their  Church  though  not  their  religion.  Conserva- 
tism, in  the  present  condition  of  society,  says  Pro- 
fessor Ross,  is  "like  setting  the  brake  on  a  loaded 
wagon  being  hauled  up  the  bare  western  slope  of  a 
sandy  hill  on  a  July  afternoon."  1  If  we  do  anything 
we  shall  doubtless  make  some  mistakes,  but  if  we 
do  nothing  we  shall  die  in  our  sins.  Society  is  an 
organism  and  to  reform  it  is  an  operation  in  surgery; 
diseased  tissue  must  be  removed  and  nature  must 

t"Sin  and  Society,"  p.  85. 


44  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

be  encouraged  to  make  healthy  tissue  in  its  place. 
Has  the  organism  vitality  enough  to  survive  the  opera- 
tion, or  will  it  die  on  the  operating-table  from  shock 
and  loss  of  blood?  Only  the  event  can  answer,  but 
if  the  patient  may  die  of  the  operation  he  certainly 
will  die  without  it — the  knife  is  the  only  hope. 

Christianity  has  been  and  is  the  religion  of  the 
possessing  class.  Christian  teachers  teach  capitalistic 
ethics  as  an  inseparable  part  of  their  religion.  Capital- 
ism has  long  used  Christianity  as  a  means  of  con- 
trolling the  workers,  by  making  them  satisfied  with 
their  lot.  Nobody  who  knows  the  facts  ought  to 
be  surprised  at  the  bitterness  of  the  reaction  against 
Christianity  among  the  workers  of  the  world.  The 
changed,  or  at  least  changing,  attitude  of  Christians 
will  in  time  produce  its  due  effect  and  make  possible 
a  better  understanding  between  the  Church  and  the 
workers.  The  real  affinity  between  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  and  the  advanced  social  propaganda  forbids 
that  the  two  great  forces  for  the  amelioration  of 
society  should  be  permanently  opposed  to  each  other. 

For  a  generation  now  the  Church  has  made  no 
appreciable  numerical  advance,  though  it  has  poured 
out  money  like  water  and  spent  effort  more  freely 
than  in  any  previous  generation  of  its  history.  In 
1880  there  were  twenty  members  of  churches  in 
every  hundred  of  the  population;  in  1910  there  were 
only  twenty- four;  and  during  the  decade  just  past 
the  population  and  the  church  membership  both  in- 
creased twenty-one  per  cent.  The  Church  is  just 
holding  its  own;  it  is  marking  time,  not  marching  to 


THE  GOSPEL   AND   THE  AWAKENING   CHURCH       4$ 

conquest.  Only  one  conclusion  is  possible :  the  Church 
has  ceased  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  age.  It  makes 
no  successful  appeal  to  the  people  at  large.  It  must 
change  its  policy  radically  or  lose  even  more  in  the 
coming  decades  of  the  century.  The  Church  that 
busies  itself  with  the  things  that  former  generations 
thought  so  important — questions  of  polities  and  sacra- 
ments and  liturgies  and  creeds — while  great  move- 
ments in  reform  of  social  institutions  and  redressing 
of  social  wrongs  are  calling  on  it  for  leadership, 
the  Church  that  with  face  toward  the  past  stands 
discussing  ancient  questions  of  theology  while  weighty 
ethical  and  spiritual  problems  press  for  an  answer, 
will  soon  be  buried  along  with  that  past  to  which  it 
clings  with  obstinacy  so  blind. 

The  future  progress  of  the  Church  depends  largely, 
perhaps  mainly,  on  the  ability  and  readiness  of  the 
ministry  to  read  these  signs  of  the  times  and  become 
wise  and  progressive  leaders.  Hitherto,  the  average 
minister  has  been  too  busy  teaching  others  their  duty 
to  learn  anything  about  his  own.  Hence  the  greater 
part  of  the  clergy  are  still  blind  leaders  of  the  blind. 
The  crying  need  of  the  ministry  is  a  larger  measure 
of  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  the  spirit  of  unselfishness,  the 
willingness  to  jeopard  personal  interests  for  the  com- 
mon good.  The  charge  of  insincerity  so  often  made 
against  the  clergy  is,  however,  absurd  to  one  who  has 
any  wide  acquaintance  with  ministers.  It  is  not 
merely  unjust,  it  is  foolish.  Precisely  because  the 
clergy  are  so  sincere,  the  case  of  30  many  of  them 
seems  hopeless;  their  desperate  sincerity  in  holding 


46  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

fast  to  the  old  prevents  them  from  learning  anything 
new. 

The  most  distressing  element  of  the  situation  is 
the  lack  of  sympathy  with  the  workers  that  is  evi- 
dent among  the  clergy.  With  exceptions  few  and 
rare,  they  may  always  be  counted  on  to  side  with 
the  exploiting  class.  In  the  strike  of  the  silk  workers 
in  Pater  son,  New  Jersey,  in  the  summer  of  1913, 
the  ministers  of  that  city  were  arrayed  in  solid  pha- 
lanx on  the  side  of  the  employers.  Not  one  voice 
was  raised  in  behalf  of  the  workers.  Not  even  was 
a  protest  made  against  the  anarchic  lawlessness  of 
police  and  local  courts.  And  this  is  typical;  it  hap- 
pens whenever  and  wherever  there  is  a  clash  between 
labor  and  capital.  This  attitude  of  the  clergy  can  be 
explained  only  on  the  ground  of  their  economic  de- 
pendence upon  the  privileged  classes.  They  are  the 
hirelings  of  capitalism,  and,  to  do  them  justice,  they 
earn  their  wages.  As  a  plain  business  proposition, 
the  Christian  churches  of  America  could  not  be 
maintained  to-day  without  the  gifts  of  men  who  are 
daily  exploiting  their  brothers.  In  fact,  they  are  so 
maintained.  Is  it  necessary  to  go  further  for  an 
explanation  of  the  attitude  of  the  clergy,  or  for  the 
attitude  of  the  workers?  Are  we  astonished  that 
there  is  a  widening  gap  between  the  workers  and  the 
Church?  Surprise  does  small  credit  to  our  intelli- 
gence. The  workers  cannot  be  rationally  expected 
to  love  such  a  Church,  to  believe  in  it,  to  attend  its 
services  and  make  sacrifices  for  its  support.  Will  the 
Church  continue  to  be  such? 


THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE  AWAKENING  CHURCH      47 

It  is  evident  that  much  remains  to  be  done  before 
the  waking  Church  becomes  the  awakened  Church. 
A  long  process  of  education  will  be  required  before 
the  enlarged  conception  of  the  kingdom,  the  Gospel 
and  Christian  ethics  is  generally  accepted.  But  there 
is  nothing  to  do  save  to  press  the  good  work  of 
awakening  and  enlightenment,  until  all  the  preachers 
are  converted  to  Christianity  and  all  the  churches  to 
religion. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  SOCIAL  JUSTICE 


AUTHENTIC  history  goes  back  about  five  thousand 
years.  We  have  had  fifty  centuries  of  agriculture, 
and  men  are  still  starving ;  thousands  are  to-day  shiver- 
ing with  cold,  after  fifty  centuries  of  manufacturing; 
for  fifty  centuries  we  have  been  building,  and  have 
not  yet  learned  to  house  all  our  people.  There  may 
have  been  a  time  when  these  things  were  unavoidable : 
the  combined  industry  of  the  race  did  not  produce 
enough  to  feed,  clothe  and  house  everybody,  and 
somebody  had  to  come  short  of  enough.  But  within 
a  century  the  introduction  of  machinery  has  changed 
all  that;  enough  is  now  produced  to  support  in  com- 
fort every  member  of  the  race.  We  have  conquered 
nature,  but  we  have  not  conquered  poverty. 

Because  it  is  a  comparatively  new  country,  with 
a  sparse  population,  yet  possessing  immense  resources, 
America  should  not  yet  have  felt  the  social  problems 
of  the  Old  World.  The  continent  of  Europe,  with 
an  area  exceeding  that  of  the  United  States  by  less 
than  200,000  square  miles,  has  a  population  of 
400,000,000,  who  must  be  sustained  from  incompar- 
ably smaller  resources.  Think  of  China,  with  its  400,- 
000,000  or  more,  wresting  a  living  from  an  area 

48 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  49 

less  than  half  the  size  of  the  United  States.1  For  a 
long  time  to  come  we  should  have  been  free  from 
the  economic  pressure  that  in  fact  we  feel  so  keenly. 
No  nation  faces  social  distress  in  more  acute  form, 
or  is  more  acutely  conscious  of  its  social  problems. 
Why?  Our  colossal  American  fortunes,  the  greatest 
in  the  world,  are  the  answer.  The  vast  wealth  of 
America  has  been  "cornered"  by  a  few  men,  and 
profits  the  great  majority  not  a  whit.  Our  poor  are 
as  poor  as  the  poorest  of  Europe. 

It  was  hoped  and  believed  for  generations,  and  was 
the  proud  boast  of  Americans,  that  our  democracy 
would  prevent  the  inequalities  of  fortune  that  aris- 
tocracy has  produced  and  established  in  Europe.  Per- 
haps it  would,  if  we  really  had  a  democracy.  Our 
pride  in  America  as  the  world's  leader  in  democracy 
has  had  a  sad  fall,  as  we  have  slowly  come  to  per- 
ceive that  the  hard  facts  are  irreconcilable  with  our 
bookish  theories.  America  the  leader  of  the  nations 
in  democracy?  It  is  falling  far  behind  those  nations 
that  we  have  so  long  sneered  at  as  "effete."  Our 
working  class  is  treated  with  a  brutality  that  finds 
no  parallel  in  any  other  great  capitalist  country. 

The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  For  two  generations 
the  men  of  greatest  physical  vigor  and  mental  power 
in  America  have  sought  a  career,  not  in  politics  but 
in  business.  The  unexampled  rapidity  of  our  ma- 

1  According  to  the  "Statesman's  Year-Book,"  the  area  of  China 
proper  is  1,532,420  square  miles,  and  the  estimated  population 
407,253,000.  The  area  of  the  United  States  (not  including  terri- 
tories) is  3,616484  square  miles,  population  91,972,267. 


5O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

terial  development,  without  precedent  or  parallel  in 
the  entire  history  of  the  world,  has  stimulated  to  a 
degree  hitherto  undreamt  the  passion  for  gain.  The 
possibility  that  the  poorest  boy  might  die  the  richest 
man  of  his  generation,  actually  realized  in  Rock- 
efeller and  Carnegie,  has  stimulated  to  the  utmost 
the  normal  desire  to  get  on,  and  turned  it  into  an 
insane  frenzy  for  wealth.  Politics  have  ceased  to 
be  politics,  and  have  become  business,  usually  a  very 
sordid  and  disgraceful  business.  Neither  justice  nor 
intelligence  inspires  our  legislation,  but  desire  for 
greater  wealth;  and  all  our  law-making  bodies  have 
fallen  under  the  control  of  the  forces  that  make  for 
wealth.  Administrative  and  judicial  departments  of 
government  have  followed  the  same  course,  and  cor- 
ruption honeycombs  every  part  of  the  conduct  of 
public  affairs.  Hitherto,  as  Professor  Zueblin  well 
says,  "The  American  public  has  betrayed  its  price, 
as  unmistakably  as  a  cheap  grafting  politician;  the 
price  is  prosperity,  which,  unaccompanied  by  justice, 
makes  a  nation  of  grafters."  l  Our  workingmen  have 
for  many  years  been  exhorted  to  vote,  not  for  a 
principle  or  for  rights,  but  for  "a  full  dinner  pail," 
and  the  greater  number  of  them  have  justified  the 
estimate  of  their  character  held  by  the  cheap  poli- 
ticians who  devised  the  slogan. 

"Triumphant  democracy"  is  no  longer  the  synonym 

of  the  United  States.     The  oppressed  peoples  of  the 

Old  World  once  looked  to  us  for  ideals,  instruction 

and  inspiring  example.     And  so,  in  our  complacency, 

*  "Democracy  and  the  Overman,"  p.  70. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  5! 

we  went  to  sleep,  and  the  world  has  run  by  us.  The 
old  fable  of  the  hare  and  the  tortoise  has  a  new 
illustration  at  our  expense.  "Free  and  enlightened" 
America  is  the  slowest  country  in  the  world  to  re- 
spond to  the  reform  sentiment,  the  slowest  country 
to  do  justice  to  the  workers.  England  repealed  her 
conspiracy  laws  against  workingmen  in  1825,  but  in 
1836  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  declared  trades 
unions  illegal;  and  it  was  not  until  1884  that  Mary- 
land repealed  her  conspiracy  laws — the  last  State  in 
the  Union  to  do  so.  The  secret  of  our  discomfiture 
lies  in  the  fact  that  we  have  understood  democracy 
to  be  concerned  with  political  institutions  only,  and 
to  imply  merely  that  all  men  should  have  the  equal 
power  expressed  by  a  vote.  We  have  been  the  slow- 
est of  civilized  peoples  to  learn  that  real  democracy 
means  the  equal  sharing  of  all  men  in  the  gifts  of 
nature,  the  product  of  labor  and  the  opportunities 
of  development.  Democracy  means  adequate  life 
for  all. 

On  the  whole,  there  has  been  steady  progress  in 
all  quarters  of  the  globe,  through  several  generations, 
not  to  say  through  all  the  centuries,  toward  political 
democracy.  A  survey  of  the  field  of  history  shows 
despotism  yielding  to  oligarchy,  oligarchy  giving  place 
to  aristocracy,  aristocracy  gradually  transformed  into 
democracy.  But  while  this  has  been  true  of  insti- 
tutions, in  life  there  has  been  no  such  progress.  As 
truly  as  five  thousand  years  ago,  everywhere  on  earth 
the  millions  toil  that  the  thousands  may  enjoy.  One 
who,  in  these  conditions,  permits  himself  to  wax  elo- 


52  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

quent  over  "democracy,"  "equal  rights,"  "justice, " 
"freedom"  and  the  like  is  become  as  sounding  brass 
and  a  tinkling  cymbal.  This  may  shock  those  who 
are  still  living  in  the  paleolithic  age,  it  may  even  cause 
them  acute  pain,  but  that  cannot  be  helped.  The 
easy,  safe,  normal  way  is  to  repeat  what  others  say, 
especially  what  the  majority  say.  Some  men  get 
quite  a  reputation  for  wisdom  by  just  doing  that  all 
their  lives.  One  cannot  contradict  the  majority  and 
expect  to  be  enrolled  among  the  Seven  Sages  of 
America.  . 

In  spite  of  the  industrious  efforts  of  our  rulers 
to  create  a  contrary  impression,  hard  and  disagreeable 
fact  compels  the  conclusion  that  we  have  under  the 
forms  of  democracy  a  country  ruled  by  an  aristoc- 
racy, based  on  industrial  wealth.  The  old  aristocracy, 
founded  on  the  possession  of  land,  acknowledged  du- 
ties to  the  land  and  did  much  to  help  elevate  their  ten- 
antry. The  new  aristocracy  of  wealth  acknowledges 
duties  to  nobody.  "Is  it  not  lawful  for  me  to  do  what 
I  will  with  mine  own?"  is  its  motto.  It  is  the  most 
tyrannous,  the  most  cruel  and  the  most  ignorant  aris- 
tocracy the  world  ever  saw.1  This  aristocracy  of 
wealth  can  be  displaced  only  by  a  democracy  of  mind. 
The  few  will  always  win  while  the  many  are  ignorant, 
and  he  who  would  see  the  triumph  of  democracy  must 
do  his  utmost  to  promote  knowledge.  None  are  fit  to 

1  "I  never  could  believe  that  Providence  had  sent  a  few  men 
into  the  world,  ready  booted  and  spurred  to  ride,  and  millions 
ready  saddled  and  bridled  to  be  ridden." — Richard  Rumbold, 
1685.  No  wonder  they  hanged  him! 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  53 

govern  but  the  wise  and  good,  and  a  democracy  of  the 
foolish  and  evil  of  all  possible  governments  would  be 
the  worst.  The  hope  of  democracy  lies  in  the  capacity 
of  all  men  to  grow  in  goodness  and  wisdom.  He  who 
does  not  believe  in  such  capacity  has  faith  neither  in 
God  nor  in  man. 

Jesus  is  the  loftiest  prophet  of  true  democracy.  A 
democracy  that  is  no  more  than  an  enlightened  animal- 
ism is  not  a  worthy  goal  of  effort,  even  if  it  be  a  pos- 
sible achievement.  Jesus  saw  this,  and  therefore  he 
said,  "Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  its  right- 
eousness." If  the  sayings  of  Jesus  about  the  king- 
dom are  not  profoundest  wisdom,  they  are  most  arrant 
nonsense.  Only  an  ethical  democracy  can  be  a  trium- 
phant democracy.  That  is  why  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself"  sums  up  the  whole  duty  of  man 
to  man.  The  decisive  reason  why  one  should  love  his 
neighbor  and  seek  his  good  is  that  no  man  can  hate 
his  neighbor  and  do  him  injury  without  also  injuring 
himself.  Selfishness  is  a  boomerang.  Service  of  our 
fellows  is  the  only  way  to  benefit  ourselves.  This  is 
a  plain,  hard,  business  proposition,  founded  on  experi- 
ence of  life.  It  happens  also  to  be  morals  and  re- 
ligion. 

This  prevailing  condition  among  us  of  real  aristoc- 
racy with  nominal  democracy,  of  practical  monopoly 
with  theoretical  freedom  of  competition,  of  hopeless 
slavery  for  the  many  while  we  hypocritically  pretend 
that  there  is  hope  of  advancement  for  all,  is  the  deadly 
foe  of  human  liberty  and  indicts  our  civilization  as  a 
failure.  Every  court,  every  crime,  every  prison  is  a 


54  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

proof  of  failure;  every  saloon,  every  prostitute  upon 
our  streets,  every  asylum  and  hospital  helps  to  roll  up 
the  vast  total  of  evidence  against  the  present  order 
of  things;  every  debt,  every  defalcation,  every  bank- 
ruptcy, every  law-suit  accumulates  testimony  to  the 
failure  of  our  civilization.  For  the  end  of  civilization 
is  the  peace,  harmony,  happiness  and  moral  uplift  of 
humanity. 

The  great  underlying  evil  of  society  as  now  or- 
ganized, stated  in  terms  of  politics  or  government,  is 
that  it  vests  public  functions  in  private  hands — in 
hands  irresponsible.  The  power  of  taxation  is  funda- 
mental in  government,  and  taxation  is  justifiable  only 
on  the  ground  of  the  public  good.  Every  dollar  taken 
from  a  citizen  that  is  not  used  for  the  public  good 
is  robbery.  Individual  monopoly  puts  into  irresponsi- 
ble hands  power  to  tax  for  private  gain,  which  is 
nothing  less  than  stealing  under  form  of  law.  The 
price  the  monopolist  can  charge  is  limited  only  by 
"what  the  traffic  will  bear."  At  a  certain  point,  which 
can  be  determined  only  by  experiment,  increase  of 
price  will  mean  diminution  of  profit ;  and  for  his  own 
sake  the  monopolist  will  stop  there,  or  return  to  that 
point  if  he  has  inadvertently  exceeded  it.  When  he' 
compares  what  he  has  actually  done  with  what  he  has 
power  to  do,  no  doubt  the  monopolist  is  often  aston- 
ished at  his  own  moderation. 

The  history  of  governments  and  peoples  discloses 
many  instances  of  the  operation  of  a  general  law  of 
social  development.  There  is  first  necessary  a  cen- 
tralization of  power,  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos,  and 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  55 

provide  the  protection  and  cooperation  that  are  the 
basic  conditions  of  social  progress.  For  a  time  this 
centralized  power  is  beneficent  in  the  main,  then  it  be- 
comes intolerable,  and  a  struggle  begins  for  decentrali- 
zation and  distribution  of  power.  With  the  political 
applications  of  this  law  all  educated  people  are  fa- 
miliar; the  text-books  of  our  school  days  began  our 
enlightenment,  and  subsequent  reading  and  observation 
have  completed  it.  We  are  now  coming  to  compre- 
hend that  this  law  applies  to  economics  as  well  as  to 
politics,  to  the  world  of  industry  and  commerce 
equally  with  the  domain  of  government.  For  a  cen- 
tury or  two  a  process  of  centralization  of  industrial 
wealth  and  social  power  has  been  going  on,  and  the 
last  generation  has  seen  it  rapidly  accelerated.  We 
see  its  fruits,  we  experience  its  intolerable  evils,  as 
our  ancestors  experienced  the  evils  of  political  des- 
potism. It  has  become  plain  to  us  that  the  time  has 
come  for  decentralization  and  distribution  of  indus- 
trial power  among  the  whole  people,  if  democracy  is 
to  be  realized  and  further  progress  in  civilization  is 
to  be  possible.  America  may  be  still  corrupt,  but 
she  is  no  longer  corrupt  and  contented. 


II 

Our  ship  of  State  is  about  to  sail  uncharted  seas. 
We  modern  Jasons  have  begun  a  quest  for  something 
more  precious,  as  well  as  more  difficult  of  attainment, 
than  the  Golden  Fleece:  we  are  in  search  of  social 


56  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

justice.  There  must  be  something  wrong  in  our  social 
arrangements;  no  rational  man  can  doubt  it.  Why 
have  we  these  extremes  of  wealth  and  poverty  that 
we  cannot  lift  our  eyes  without  seeing?  Evidently 
because  the  best  minds  of  the  centuries  have  not  been 
given  to  the  solution  of  social  problems.  Men  have 
been  too  intent  on  producing  wealth,  securing  power 
and  promoting  knowledge,  to  take  much  thought  about 
securing  social  justice.  It  has  been  taken  for  granted 
that,  with  progress  of  civilization,  social  justice  would 
come  about  of  itself.  But  now  the  best  minds  are 
awakening  to  the  actual  condition  of  society.  A  civi- 
lization so  defective  in  social  justice  as  ours  is  seen 
to  be  a  thing  of  which  we  should  be  ashamed,  not 
proud.  Henceforth  these  problems  are  to  receive  the 
serious  attention  of  Americans  who  are  leaders  of 
thought  and  enterprise.  We  feel  that  we  must  do 
something  to  make  the  conditions  of  life  better  for 
those  who  come  after  us.  For,  in  spite  of  the  Irish 
orator's  famous  protest,  posterity  has  done  much  for 
us,  in  giving  us  the  greatest  of  all  gifts,  an  oppor- 
tunity. 

The  demand  for  social  justice  is  not  only  insistent 
but  general.  From  one  end  of  our  land  to  the  other, 
and  in  every  class,  there  is  a  growing  conviction  that 
something  is  wrong.  As  a  consequence  there  is  also 
a  growing  resolution  that  something  must  and  shall 
be  done  about  it.  We  are  an  aroused,  a  determined, 
almost  an  angry  people,  as  yet  doubting  just  what  to 
do.  This  period  of  doubt  will  not  long  endure.  Now 
is  the  psychological  moment  to  make  changes  in  our 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  57 

system  with  least  trouble,  radical  enough  to  avert  revo- 
lution, before  revolutionary  methods  are  demanded 
and  adopted. 

Analysis  of  this  discontent  will  convince  any  in- 
quirer that  its  source  is  violation  by  our  social  order 
of  two  fundamental  principles  of  human  life.  The 
first  of  these  is,  that  the  soil,  the  sole  source  of  the 
means  of  life  and  the  physical  basis  of  liberty  and 
happiness,  is  the  common  property  of  the  race.  This 
fundamental  human  right  society  denies.  The  earth 
is  the  Lord's,  say  the  Scriptures ;  the  earth  is  the  land- 
lord's, say  our  laws.  God  gave  the  earth  to  man  for 
use,  to  all  men  equally,  again  say  the  Scriptures ;  but  a 
few  men  have  stolen  the  earth  from  their  fellows  and 
claim  it  as  their  private  possession.  This  is  the  first 
great  injustice,  and  the  second  is  like  unto  it:  the 
sole  means  by  which  wealth  may  be  obtained  from  the 
soil  is  labor,  which  is  the  common  lot  of  the  race.  This 
fundamental  human  duty  society  denies ;  it  permits  and 
even  encourages  spoliation  of  the  hard-working  many 
by  the  idle  few.  Our  laws  say  that  some  must  work 
while  others  may  live  luxuriously  from  their  product. 
For  no  man  can  live  without  work;  if  he  does  not 
work  for  himself,  somebody  else  must  work  for  him. 
But  an  honest  man  cannot  live  on  the  fruits  of  an- 
other's toil,  unless  he  is  also  doing  something  of  use 
to  society;  he  must  either  be  a  direct  producer  of 
wealth,  or  else  a  helper  of  the  workers  and  so  an 
indirect  producer.  If  he  neither  directly  nor  indi- 
rectly produces,  he  has  no  right  to  existence — he  is  a 
mere  parasite  on  society.  These  are  the  two  funda- 


58  THE   GOSPEL  OF   JESUS 

mental  principles  of  life;  they  stand  every  economic, 
ethical  and  practical  test.  Their  truth  cannot  be  con- 
troverted or  evaded.  Their  denial  in  practice  is  the 
source  of  all  our  social  evils. 

The  other  day  a  young  man  in  New  York  became 
the  absolute  owner  of  property  said  to  be  worth  $70,- 
000,000,  which  he  had  done  nothing  to  earn  but  to 
be  the  son  of  his  father.  His  father  before  him,  and 
so  on  to  the  fourth  generation,  had  done  no  more. 
All  that  this  family  has  had  to  do  is  to  sit  tight  and 
let  their  fellow  residents  of  Manhattan  pile  up  mil- 
lions for  them.  One  scion  of  the  family  has  shaken 
the  dust  of  America  from  his  feet,  and  become  a 
British  subject.  Americans  are  not  fit  for  him  to  live 
with;  they  are  only  fit  to  pay  him  an  annual  tribute 
of  many  millions,  which  they  continue  meekly  to  do. 
Meanwhile,  every  week  scores  of  children  are  born 
in  Manhattan  with  no  heritage  but  poverty  and  misery. 

This  is  an  extreme  case,  but  so  long  as  the  world 
holds  one  starving  child  and  one  millionaire,  the  mil- 
lionaire is  bound  to  justify  his  existence.  Christians 
cannot  believe  that  their  Father  in  Heaven  ever  in- 
tended his  children  to  fare  so  unequally.  Atheists  and 
agnostics  cannot  believe  that  members  of  the  same 
race  can  equitably  be  so  different  in  fortune.  So  long 
as  men  believed  that  God  sent  the  plague  and  cholera, 
and  all  the  other  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,  they  sub- 
mitted with  what  resignation  they  could  to  the  divine 
will.  But  when  they  learned  the  nature  and  causes 
of  disease,  they  ceased  to  talk  about  "mysterious  dis- 
pensations of  Providence"  and  began  a  vigorous  fight 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  59 

against  microbes  and  mosquitoes.  And  while  men 
believed  that  God  pleased  to  set  some  men  in  high 
station  and  some  in  low,  that  he  had  given  to  this 
man  wealth  and  to  that  poverty,  some  tried  to  be  con- 
tent in  the  station  to  which  divine  wisdom  had  as- 
signed them,  while  those  who  strove  against  their  lot 
were  stigmatized  as  rebels  against  God.  Now  we  all 
know  that  our  fellows,  not  God,  have  made  and  main- 
tain human  inequality;  content  has  disappeared,  and  a 
smoldering  anger  has  taken  its  place,  which  will  burst 
into  a  flame  of  revolution  if  something  is  not  done 
speedily  to  redress  our  great  social  wrongs. 

Even  if  the  continuance  of  present  conditions  were 
possible,  they  would  be  deadly  to  the  race.  Some  men 
are  so  busy  in  accumulating  surplus  means~6"f"  living 
that  they  forget  to  live.  Others  are  so  occupied  with 
attempts  to  gain  the  absolutely  necessary  means  of  liv- 
ing that  they  have  no  chance  to  live.  Only  a  few  live ; 
most  men  merely  exist.  It  is  imperative  that  this  be 
changed.  We  must  have  the  possibility  of  life,  lib- 
erty, happiness,  for  all.  We  want  the  earth,  the  whole 
earth,  for  all  men — not  to  own,  but  to  possess,  to  use, 
to  enjoy.  We  need  not  wonder  at  the  resentment  of 
those  who  have  learned  how  they  have  been  robbed 
of  their  heritage.  Machiavelli  said  that  men  in  gen- 
eral will  forgive  the  murder  of  their  parents  more 
easily  than  the  spoliation  of  their  property.  The  cyn- 
ical remark  was  founded  on  a  wide  observation  of 
human  nature ;  and  it  helps  us  to  measure  the  retribu- 
tion that  will  one  day  be  exacted  from  the  robbers  by 
the  robbed,  if  voluntary  restitution  is  not  made. 


60  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Recognition  of  social  wrongs  and  demand  for  so- 
cial justice,  while  general,  are  by  no  means  universal. 
A  very  considerable  part  of  society,  including  some  of 
its  most  influential  members,  elects  the  ostrich  policy: 
hides  its  head  and  refuses  to  see  either  present  evils 
or  the  coming  storm.  Many  will  recognize  nothing 
but  an  unreasonable  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of 
those  whose  failure  to  get  on  is  due  to  their  own 
idleness,  dissipation  and  general  thriftlessness.  Indus- 
try and  thrift  would  solve  all  social  problems;  every 
man  might  gain  a  competence  if  he  would.  Thrift! 
Have  those  who  so  confidently  commend  this  remedy 
for  social  ills  ever  troubled  themselves  to  think  the 
matter  through  and  discover  what  thrift  signifies  so- 
cially? Thrift  means  that  if  you  and  I  slave  and  save 
all  our  lives,  our  children  may  be  idle  with  impunity. 
It  means  that  one  generation  shall  be  workers  and  the 
next  loafers.  Why  does  not  society  let  one  generation 
transmit  to  the  next  the  right  to  murder  with  impu- 
nity ?  It  would  be  equally  logical  and  quite  as  ethical. 

The  ostrich  plan  includes  not  merely  the  ignoring 
but  the  denial  of  patent  social  facts.  "I  object  to  the 
word  'class';  there  are  no  classes  in  America,"  said  a 
talented  and  cultivated  woman  lately  in  a  public  in- 
quiry. Could  anything  be  said  that  would  show 
greater  blindness  to  existing  facts?  We  have  classes 
as  well  marked  as  those  of  any  European  country, 
but  the  distinctions  with  us  depend  less  on  birth,  fam- 
ily, gentility.  Our  classes  are  purely  economic  classes ; 
the  line  of  demarcation  is  one  of  wealth,  or  rather  of 
income.  The  late  Ward  McAllister  once  expressed 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  6l 

the  opinion  that  about  four  hundred  families  consti- 
tuted the  "society"  of  New  York.  He  may  have  been 
inaccurate  in  his  figures — the  exact  number  is  of  no 
moment — but  he  was  quite  right  in  principle ;  in  every 
city  and  town,  down  to  the  smallest  village,  there  are 
certain  families,  a  number  larger  or  smaller  according 
to  the  size  and  wealth  of  the  place,  who  constitute 
"society,"  and  their  decisions  fix  the  social  status  of 
every  newcomer,  whether  he  shall  be  in  "society"  or 
not  Fifty  years  ago  we  aped  the  aristocracies  of 
Europe  and  affected  to  make  birth  the  chief  qualifica- 
tion. The  would-be  entrant  to  "society"  was  asked, 
Who  was  your  grandfather?  Of  late  we  have  had  the 
courage  to  set  up  a  standard  of  our  own,  or,  rather, 
to  recognize  frankly  what  has  always  been  our  real 
standard,  and  the  question  now  is,  What  is  your  in- 
come? Not  that  the  question  is  asked  in  quite  this 
bald,  blunt  fashion,  but  that  this  is  the  accepted  test 
of  social  fitness.  And  below  the  Four  Hundred,  in 
which  few  can  maintain  themselves  who  do  not  pos- 
sess millions,  are  other  groups  united  on  the  same 
principle  of  possessing  approximately  the  same  in- 
comes and  therefore  being  able  to  do  the  same  social 
"stunts."  There  is,  too,  a  degree  of  fitness  in  the 
standard,  for  self-respecting  persons  cannot  long  re- 
main with  comfort  in  a  social  circle  where  the  finan- 
cial pace  is  too  hot  for  them — they  cannot  entertain  in 
the  style  of  richer  people,  and  their  pride  forbids  them 
to  be  continually  accepting  favors  that  they  cannot 
return.  And  there  we  reach  the  ultimate  fact:  The 
amount  of  income  finally  decides  the  social  question,  to 


62  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

what  class  a  man  belongs.     It  is  no  use  to  blink  the 
fact,  and  pretend  that  we  have  no  classes. 


Ill 


The  world's  workers,  who  produce  the  world's 
wealth,  are  now  demanding  access  to  the  soil  and 
their  rightful  share  of  the  product  of  their  industry, 
so  long  withheld  from  them.  If  we  do  not  give,  it 
will  not  be  long  before  they  take.  Theirs  is  the  power 
to  take.  They  have  only  to  realize  their  strength  and 
act  together,  and  all  present  institutions  of  the  world 
would  disappear  in  a  day  in  one  common  ruin.  It  is 
time  that  the  owners  of  vast  wealth  realized  that  they 
hold  their  property  only  on  the  sufferance  of  those 
who  are  so  cruelly  wronged  by  present  social  arrange- 
ments, and  that  sufferance  will  not  last  indefinitely. 

It  has  been  estimated,  on  the  basis  of  the  best  data 
obtainable,  that  nine-tenths  of  the  wealth  of  America 
is  owned  by  one-tenth  of  the  people.  What  80,000,- 
ooo  possess  would  not  make  spending-money  for  the 
other  10,000,000.  The  estimate  is  no  doubt  crude,  be- 
cause the  data  on  which  it  is  based  are  crude.  The 
art  of  collecting  and  collating  social  statistics  has  only 
begun  to  be  practiced ;  but  the  error  is  negligible  for 
our  purpose.  That  the  estimate  is  roughly  just  is 
proved  by  other  available  facts.  For  example:  the 
average  annual  product  of  the  individual  worker  is 
calculated  from  the  census  returns  to  be  $2,400;  while 
the  average  annual  wage  of  the  producer  is  $780.  Of 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  63 

each  worker's  product,  therefore,  $1,600,  or  more  than 
two-thirds,  goes  to  those  who  have  produced  nothing. 
The  monstrous  injustice  of  this  admits  of  no  denial 
or  palliation.  Still,  there  are  persons  who  seem  to 
reason  (let  us  call  it  that)  that,  inasmuch  as  the  cap- 
italistic class  is  satisfied  with  what  it  steals  from 
workers,  the  workers  are  or  should  be  satisfied  with 
what  is  not  stolen  from  them.  If  employers  are 
happy  in  their  palaces,  laborers  should  be  contented 
in  their  slums.  Strangely,  the  worker  no  longer  ap- 
proves that  sort  of  logic. 

When  the  laborer  goes  to  the  market  place  to  sell 
his  labor,  he  finds  that  sellers  are  many  and  buyers 
few.  When  he  goes  to  buy  food  and  clothing  and 
shelter,  he  finds  that  buyers  are  many  and  sellers  few. 
Hence  he  gets  low  wages  and  pays  high  prices. 
Reader,  how  do  you  appraise  the  system?  Just?  hu- 
mane? promotive  of  human  welfare?  encouraging  to 
civilization?  The  employer  sells  his  goods,  the  em- 
ployee sells  his  life;  we  have  given  every  protection 
to  the  former  and  denied  all  protection  to  the  latter, 
thus  proclaiming  to  the  world  our  conviction  that  life 
is  of  less  worth  than  steel  rails  or  woolen  cloth.  Are 
we  really  less  brutal  and  material  than  our  laws? 
Have  we  done  ourselves  injustice?  How  can  we  pre- 
tend so,  while  we  tolerate  a  social  system  in  which 
the  proletarian  swings  like  a  pendulum  between  a  con-" 
dition  of  dependence  when  times  are  good  and  vaga- 
bondage when  times  are  bad  ?  Work,  the  opportunity 
to  gain  a  livelihood,  is  not  recognized  as  his  right, 


64  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

but  a  favor  granted  by  a  boss,  like  a  bone  thrown  to 
a  dog.  Often  there  is  no  bone.  Ought  not  the  great 
majority  of  working  men  be  called  rather  working 
animals,  that  they  submit  one  day  longer  to  such  a 
system?  So  long  as  they  get  fodder  and  a  stall,  they 
manifest  a  bovine  content  with  their  life.  Add  thereto 
a  mate,  and  it  is  a  difficult  thing  to  awaken  their  in- 
telligence and  rouse  them  to  make  an  effort  to  better 
themselves.  Deprive  them  of  fodder  and  stall,  and 
they  seem  unable  to  do  more  than  bellow  and  paw 
the  ground. 

At  least,  this  has  been  their  history  up  to  now. 
Hitherto  the  capitalist  has  been  able,  if  not  to  satisfy, 
at  least  to  quiet  the  laborer  by  paying  him  a  pittance 
and  adding  a  draft  on  the  bank  of  Heaven.  Is  it 
strange  that  the  worker  has  become  dissatisfied?  He 
does  not  discover  any  unseemly  eagerness  on  the  part 
of  his  employer  to  take  his  profits  in  that  currency. 
Wall  Street  quotes  no  rates  on  that  kind  of  paper. 
The  magnates  of  High  Finance  when  off  duty,  so  to 
speak,  may  address  Sunday  schools  and  advise  their 
hearers  to  lay  up  their  treasures  in  Heaven,  but  in 
business  hours  what  they  understand  is  cent  per  cent, 
here  below.  Hope  of  the  life  to  come  is  indeed  a 
precious  possession  for  the  laborer,  but  it  does  not 
clothe  and  feed  his  family  or  pay  his  rent  The 
worker  is  just  human  enough  to  wish  for  a  larger 
proportion  of  his  pay  now,  and  in  material  things, 
without  denying  the  value  of  the  spiritual.  For 
though  he  has  an  immortal  soul  which  clamors  for  its 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  65 

rights,  he  is  just  now  an  immortal  soul  housed  in  a 
mortal  body,  that  cries  out  against  hunger  and  cold 
and  nakedness.  And  the  body  often  cries  so  insist- 
ently that  the  cry  of  the  soul  is  unheard.  It  was  not 
for  nothing  that  the  ancients  held  the  bowels  to  be  the 
seat  of  the  affections  and  will.  The  hungry  man  will 
hear  the  call  of  his  stomach,  when  the  still  small  voice 
of  conscience  falls  on  deaf  ears. 

The  preachers  who  insist  that  man's  chief  duty  is 
to  consider  the  welfare  of  his  soul  to  the  last  man 
look  wonderfully  well  after  their  bodies.  Not  one  of 
them  omits  his  three  meals  a  day  for  fear  of  hurting 
his  soul.  It  is  ever  the  well-fed  man  who  piously 
insists  that  "Man  cannot  live  by  bread  alone" ;  the  ill- 
fed  man  is  acutely  conscious  that  without  bread  man 
cannot  live  at  all.  In  spite  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  it  is  very 
easy  to  fool  people;  it  is  still  easier  to  fool  oneself. 
The  preacher  has  no  need  to  worry  about  bread,  be- 
cause some  other  man  is  working  to  feed  him.  He 
can  keep  his  hands  soft  and  white,  because  some  other 
man  wears  callouses  and  grime  for  his  sake.  The 
preacher  may  deserve  his  immunity,  but  the  least  he 
can  do  in  return  for  it  is  to  recognize  the  situation 
and  stop  talking  nonsense  to  the  man  whose  labor  sup- 
plies his  bread. 

It  is  often  objected  to  current  proposals  for  social 
reform  that  they  would  really  promote  greater  social 
injustice  than  they  seek  to  remedy.  It  is  charged  that 
social  reform  practically  amounts  to  taking  from  one 
man  that  which  is  his  and  giving  it  to  another  who 


66  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

has  not  earned  it.1  It  would  not  be  possible  to  mis- 
understand and  misstate  the  case  more  completely. 
What  is  proposed  is  to  take  from  one  man  who  has 
not  earned  it  property  that  he  merely  calls  "his"  but 
to  which  he  has  no  moral  title,  and  give  it  to  the  men 
who  really  earned  it.  The  horror  that  conservative 
people  feel — or  affect — at  such  proposals  might  be  not 
a  little  lessened  if  they  would  consider  the  historic 
origin  of  present  "vested  rights."  Communal  prop- 
erty preceded  private;  the  latter  is  a  comparatively 
recent  growth  and  has  progressed  chiefly  by  the  usur- 
pations of  the  strong  and  aggressive  few  and  the  pas- 
sive surrender  of  the  great  majority.  The  ethical 
right  of  the  majority  to  reverse  the  process,  whenever 
it  can  and  as  far  as  it  pleases,  will  be  questioned  by 
few  who  judge  human  institutions  in  the  light  of  their 
origin  and  growth.  Thus  far  the  majority  propose 
only  a  slight  modification  of  the  system  of  private 

1  "How  are  the  inequalities  in  society  to  be  wiped  out  ?  How  is 
government  to  insure  happiness  to  the  individual?  Is  it  by  an 
equal  distribution  of  property?  Is  it  by  taking  from  one  man 
that  which  is  his  and  giving  it  to  another  who  has  not  earned 
it?  I  submit  that  this  is  the  ultimate  result  of  a  thorough  anal- 
ysis of  all  the  theories  advanced  by  the  Progressive  party.  It 
is  easily  seen  that  under  the  progressive  program  the  whole 
machinery  that  has  been  so  carefully  built  up  by  the  older 
statesmen  of  this  country  and  of  England  to  save  to  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  minority,  freedom,  equality  before  the  law,  the 
right  of  property  and  the  right  to  pursue  happiness,  is  to  be 
taken  apart  and  thrown  into  a  junk  heap."  Speech  of  William 
Howard  Taft  in  New  York,  January  4,  1913.  Of  this  farrago 
of  nonsense,  the  last  five  words  only  betray  some  comprehen- 
sion of  fact.  The  junk  heap  is  where  most  of  the  "machinery" 
belongs. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  67 

property :  the  claim  of  the  State  to  the  "unearned  in- 
crement," the  value  added  to  land,  not  by  anything 
that  the  private  owner  does,  but  by  the  growth  of  the 
community,  is  by  many  conceded  to  be  just. 

Society  has  a  clear  ethical  right  to  take  for  the 
common  good  value  which  society  alone  confers. 
Every  form  of  wealth  save  land  value  is  produced  by 
labor.  Every  other  form  of  wealth  is  consumed  or 
deteriorates  and  must  be  replaced  by  new  labor.  Land 
values  grow  with  the  growth  of  population,  without 
labor,  and  continue  as  long  as  the  population  remains, 
and  no  longer.  We  speak  of  "land  values,"  because 
that  is  the  accepted  phrase,  but  land  values  are  not 
properly  values :  they  are  merely  the  landowners' 
power  to  levy  tribute  (called  rent)  upon  other  forms 
of  wealth.  The  landowner  is  a  parasite :  he  produces 
no  more  wealth  than  any  other  thief.  There  was  a 
time  when  the  whole  of  Manhattan  Island  sold  for 
$25 ;  now  much  of  it  is  worth  $500  a  foot  front,  some 
of  it  even  more.  The  difference  between  the  two 
values  is  due  solely  to  the  fact  that  the  inhabitants  have 
increased  from  a  few  Indians  to  nearly  two  and  a  half 
millions  of  people.  Nobody  who  owns  a  foot  of  soil 
on  Manhattan  Island  has  done  anything  by  his  own 
labor  or  skill  to  add  one  dollar  of  value  to  his  pos- 
session; the  community  has  done  all;  the  community 
may  take  what  it  has  given. 

Testamentary  rights  are  of  still  more  recent  origin, 
of  little  ethical  weight  and  of  more  than  doubtful 
social  value.  The  right  of  a  man  "to  do  what  he  will 
with  his  own,"  even  during  his  lifetime,  has  been  con- 


68  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

siderably  limited  by  law  and  should  be  limited  much 
more  strictly.  When  he  dies  his  property  no  longer 
belongs  to  him,  but  to  those  that  come  after  him. 
All  of  a  man's  possible  ethical  rights  of  property  end 
with  his  own  life;  he  has  no  moral  claim  to  bind  the 
future  generations.  Each  generation  in  turn  has  a 
right  to  the  earth  and  the  fulness  thereof.  The  power 
to  dispose  of  property  by  will  is  ethically  indefensible, 
and  ought  to  be  abrogated.  Every  estate  should  be 
settled  by  law,  in  accordance  with  acknowledged  prin- 
ciples of  equity,  as  is  now  done  in  cases  of  intestacy. 
Social  justice  can  be  satisfied  with  no  less. 

IV 

What  has  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  to  do  with  all  this? 
Some  say,  Nothing.  The  view  of  the  Gospel  that 
many  hold  to  be  the  only  orthodoxy  is,  that  if  we 
can  save  a  man's  soul  from  a  future  hell  of  which  we 
know  nothing,  not  even  that  it  exists,  we  may  without 
compunction  leave  his  body  in  a  present  hell  of  which 
we  know  only  too  much.  Our  age  needs  a  very  dif- 
ferent view  of  the  Gospel  from  that,  and  is  rapidly 
getting  it.  We  must  have  a  Gospel  that  is  concerned 
with  men's  bodies  as  well  as  with  their  souls,  because 
it  is  a  Gospel  for  this  life  as  well  as  for  the  life  to 
come.  It  is  a  Gospel  that  sets  itself  the  task  of  trans- 
forming this  world  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Such  a  Gospel  demands  of  its  votaries  first  of  all 
that  they  see  clearly  and  think  straight.  Men  and 
women  of  sensitive  social  conscience  are  vainly  trying 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  69 

to-day  to  make  the  Gospel  practical  by  applying  charity 
to  the  consequences  of  social  evil,  instead  of  applying 
justice  to  the  causes  of  social  evil.  By  so  doing  they 
perhaps  succeed  in  solacing  an  uneasy  conscience,  but 
they  accomplish  nothing  of  social  value.  What  is 
called  Christian  charity,  or  simply  philanthropy,  con- 
cerns itself  only  with  effects,  and  in  consequence  it  so 
directs  its  well-intended  efforts  as  to  increase  social 
evils  rather  than  remedy  them.  To  individuals  it  has 
done  much  good,  but  society  as  a  whole  has  been 
more  injured  by  charity  than  benefited.  None  will 
deny  that  it  has  failed  to  diminish  appreciably  the 
vast  total  of  social  suffering.  We  may  expect  some- 
thing worth  while  to  be  done  only  when  Christian  men 
and  women  come  to  see  that  the  Gospel  does  not  per- 
mit a  man  to  live  at  the  expense  of  his  fellows — 
when  all  forms  of  profit,  and  especially  rent,  dividends 
and  interest,  will  be  recognized  as  profoundly  immoral, 
since  all  alike  violate  the  law,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal." 
The  Gospel  of  Jesus  cannot  tolerate  two  sorts  of 
ethics:  one  for  the  working  class,  another  for  the 
capitalistic.  For  example:  the  workers  are  severely 
criticized  for  sabotage,  even  of  the  milder  sort,  by  the 
very  capitalists  who  constantly  form  "gentlemen's 
agreements"  or  other  combinations  to  limit  output  and 
maintain  prices — criticized  by  the  very  commission 
merchants  who  destroy  food  products  rather  than  per- 
mit prices  to  be  lowered.  The  Steel  Trust,  fixing  the 
output  of  each  concern  included  in  the  organization, 
and  the  price  at  which  every  pound  of  product  shall 
be  sold,  cuts  a  sorry  figure  when  it  denounces  workers 


7O  THE    GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

for  a  policy  of  "ca'  canny."  The  Gospel  of  Jesus 
cannot  tolerate  one  standard  of  ethics  for  individuals 
and  another  for  corporations.  "Corporations  have  no 
souls,"  said  Blackstone,  and  the  saying  has  proved  to 
be  true  in  a  far  different  sense  from  that  he  intended. 
There  is  a  certain  hardness  and  ruthlessness  in  cor- 
porate management  that  is  not  found  in  business  enter- 
prises conducted  by  an  individual  or  a  firm.  A  man 
may  be  haughty,  insolent  or  vindictive  in  business,  but 
he  cannot  practice  the  passionless  cruelty,  the  imper- 
sonal brutality,  of  a  corporation.  A  man  may  have 
many  motives  in  conducting  his  business;  a  corpora- 
tion has  one  sole  motive:  dividends. 

Those  who  believe  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  will  try  to 
understand  the  ethics  of  the  workers  before  pronounc- 
ing condemnation.  The  right  to  life  and  liberty  is 
meaningless,  unless  it  means  a  right  to  employment. 
"You  do  take  away  my  life,  when  you  take  away 
the  means  by  which  I  live,"  said  Shy  lock,  and  it  re- 
mains true  even  if  he  did  say  it.  The  workers  in  a 
great  industrial  enterprise  have  an  equity  in  the  busi- 
ness that  thinking  employers  are  beginning  to  recog- 
nize. Hence,  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  worker,  "Thou 
shalt  not  steal"  translates  into  "Thou  shalt  not  scab." 
Likewise,  "Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's 
house,"  under  modern  conditions  means,  "Thou 
shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  job."  People 
outside  of  the  working  class  find  it  difficult  to 
comprehend  this  simple  ethical  principle,  and  wonder 
why  the  worker  feels  so  bitter  toward  the  "scab." 
Can  people  of  the  North  who  lived  through  the  civil 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  Jl 

war  remember  how  they  once  felt  toward  a  "copper- 
head"? Are  we  patriots  enough  to  comprehend  our 
fathers'  execration  of  Benedict  Arnold?  Are  we 
Christian  enough  to  understand  what  our  New  Testa- 
ment says  about  Judas?  To  the  worker,  a  "scab"  is 
Benedict  Arnold  in  industry ;  he  is  Judas  reincarnated ; 
he  is  both  thief  and  traitor. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  attempt  to  apply  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  to  the  solution  of  social  problems  is 
less  successful  than  we  have  a  right  to  expect.  This 
is  because  the  attempt  is  but  half-hearted,  in  the  first 
place,  and  because  it  is  opposed  by  the  very  persons 
who  ought  heartily  to  forward  it.  A  large  part  of 
the  clergy  are  openly  indifferent  or  secretly  hostile. 
Many  publicly  declare  that  social  service  and  social 
justice  are  but  "fads,"  notions  of  a  day,  and  unworthy 
of  serious  consideration.  Of  the  Christian  laymen  of 
intelligence  and  high  ideals,  but  a  small  proportion 
are  sufficiently  enlightened  to  perceive  that  social  in- 
justice harms  not  only  the  class  that  suffers  from  it 
but  even  more  the  class  that  profits  by  it.  The  men 
who  have  succeeded,  the  men  who  are  comfortable, 
the  men  for  whom  life  is  relatively  easy,  cannot  be 
aroused  to  take  interest  in  the  abolition  of  privilege 
and  the  redress  of  social  grievances.  It  is  their  selfish 
satisfaction  with  their  own  lot,  their  indolent  refusal 
to  think  seriously  of  social  problems,  that  is  mainly 
responsible  for  the  slowness  of  social  progress. 

It  is  not  a  little  discouraging  to  know  that,  after 
half  a  century  of  energetic  wrestling  by  a  few  with 
the  problem  of  crime,  there  is  more  crime  than  ever 


72  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

among  us:  that  millions  have  been  spent  in  the  fight 
against  disease,  and  tuberculosis  and  typhoid  slay  more 
victims  every  year;  that  society  has  been  contending 
vigorously  against  vice  for  generations,  and  that  the 
saloon  and  the  brothel  were  never  so  flourishing ;  that 
peace  societies  have  been  propagating  their  principles 
for  generations,  arbitration  treaties  have  been  con- 
cluded and  The  Hague  tribunal  established,  yet  every 
year  all  nations  are  increasing  their  armaments  and 
one  of  the  bloodiest  wars  of  history  has  been  raging 
within  a  twelve-month  in  the  Balkans.  Evidently  one 
of  two  things  must  be  true :  either  the  forces  aiming 
at  social  reform  are  all  too  weak,  or  the  efforts  made 
are  misdirected  and  futile.  Possibly  we  may  see  rea- 
son to  conclude  that  both  are  true,  but  the  error  of 
method  is  the  really  serious  thing. 

Napoleon's  ideal,  La  carriere  ouverte  aux  talents, 
has  been  highly  praised  by  some  who  have  imagined 
that  social  justice  lies  that  way.  But  this  is  only  to 
substitute  an  aristocracy  of  intellect  for  an  aristoc- 
racy of  birth  or  wealth.  What  of  the  poor  without 
talents?  No  talents,  no  rights,  is  the  only  corollary 
from  the  Napoleonic  formula.  But  we  must  have  so- 
cial justice  for  all,  not  opportunity  for  a  few  to  ex- 
ploit the  less  gifted  of  their  generation.  The  United 
States  has  for  a  century  offered  a  large  career  for 
talent,  and  we  are  by  no  means  satisfied  with  the 
social  results.  The  despised  Middle  Ages  were,  in 
many  respects,  marked  by  a  social  justice  superior  to 
our  own.  Society  then  tried  to  prevent  unfair  com- 
petition, to  give  every  man  a  chance  in  his  own  rank. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  73 

Rising  capitalism  was  from  the  beginning  impatient 
of  all  such  restraints,  and  insisted  that  they  should 
be  removed,  so  that  competition  might  be  made  free 
and  every  man  might  find  his  level.  It  proved  strong 
enough  to  carry  its  point;  restraints  were  removed; 
competition  was  without  limit.  What  followed?  We 
have  but  to  look  about  us  and  see. 

Men  get  in  this  world  about  what  they  deserve,  some 
complacent  social  philosophers  tell  us.  It  is  a  specious 
saying,  but  untrue,  and  also  irrelevant.  Nothing  is 
more  idle  than  to  consider  the  character  of  rich  and 
poor  as  individuals.  Beautiful  souls  are  found  in  the 
slum  and  in  the  mansion,  and  ugly  souls  are  found 
in  both;  and  the  relative  proportions  it  is  as  unprofit- 
able to  discuss  as  difficult  to  ascertain.  What  the 
poor  "deserve"  is  not  the  question;  the  question  is, 
What  are  we  bound  to  give  them?  The  goodness 
of  this  or  that  rich  man  is  not  the  question ;  the  ques- 
tion is,  What  effect  is  unearned  wealth  likely  to  have 
on  character?  Nothing  can  be  a  clearer  proposition 
than  that  unearned  wealth  in  the  hands  of  one  man 
can  only  mean  that  earned  wealth  has  been  wrested 
from  the  hands  of  another. 

Our  problem,  looked  at  in  a  practical  way,  is  to 
translate  the  laws  of  industrial  production  into  terms 
of  human  happiness  and  virtue.  The  solution  of  the 
problem  may  be  expected  when  as  much  time,  study, 
intelligence  and  religion  have  been  expended  in  secur- 
ing the  due  reward  of  labor  as  have  been  ex- 
pended on  the  making  of  profit;  when  the  welfare 
of  the  laborer  is  deemed  as  worthy  of  consideration 


74  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

as  equipment,  efficiency  and  selling ;  when  the  man  be- 
hind the  machine  is  held  to  be  of  greater  importance 
than  the  machine.  In  a  word,  when  the  good  of  hu- 
manity is  the  impelling  social  motive. 

Scientific  efficiency,  of  which  we  hear  a  great  deal 
in  these  days,  means  among  many  other  things — and 
this  is  really  its  most  important  meaning,  though  few 
recognize  it — that  men  and  women  are  not  to  be  per- 
mitted to  work  beyond  their  powers.  It  is  not  so- 
cially profitable  to  allow  overstrain,  fatigue  beyond  the 
point  that  the  daily  and  weekly  rest  will  suffice  fully 
to  overcome.  To  tax  the  future  by  exacting  too  heavy 
tasks  now  may  fill  an  employer's  purse,  but  it  will 
bankrupt  society.  The  struggle  for  an  eight-hour 
working  day,  and  for  one  day's  rest  in  seven,  is  an 
attempt  to  secure  recognition  of  the  worker's  right  to 
leisure.  Leisure  is  good  for  man;  much  leisure  is 
indispensable  to  the  best  humanity;  but  complete 
leisure  is  the  worst  thing  man  can  have.  A  leisure 
class  is  always  an  idle  class,  a  vicious  class,  an  anti- 
social class.  The  curse  of  unearned  wealth  is  the 
power  that  it  gives  to  some  men  to  be  idle  while 
others  must  work  to  keep  them  in  their  idleness.  It 
is  as  unjust  and  unethical  a  system  for  the  idler  as 
for  the  worker — it  corrupts  both.  The  worker's  leis- 
ure is  now  mainly  involuntary,  and  takes  the  form  of 
unemployment.  Some  is  voluntary  and  takes  the 
form  of  vagrancy.  Not  less  than  higher  wages  the 
worker  needs  more  leisure,  regular  leisure,  that  he 
may  have  opportunity  to  develop  a  higher  manhood. 
Some  of  them  will  misuse  their  leisure?  Quite  likely, 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  75 

until  they  learn  how  to  use  it  better.  But  "there  is 
no  cure  for  the  evils  of  liberty  but  more  liberty." 

Max  Nordau  tells  us  that  the  natural  or  zoological 
morality  affirms  rest  to  be  the  supreme  merit,  and  does 
not  define  labor  as  pleasant  and  glorious  except  as  it 
is  indispensable  to  material  existence.  Pouget,  follow- 
ing Nordau,  denounces  the  usual  ideas  of  the  duty  of 
labor  and  the  dignity  of  labor  as  bourgeois  morality. 
The  premise  of  such  reasoning  is  faulty  and  so  the 
conclusion  is  invalid.  Nordau  does  not  correctly  state 
the  zoological  morality.  Man  must  work  and  incur 
fatigue  in  order  to  rest,  just  as  he  must  be  hungry 
in  order  to  eat.  Merely  to  masticate  and  swallow 
food  is  not  eating;  it  is  only  the  mechanical  process 
that  accompanies  eating.  Eating  is  the  enjoyment  of 
food,  and  for  that  hunger  is  indispensable.  Doing 
nothing  is  not  resting;  no  man  can  rest  until  he  is 
tired.  Labor  is  zoological  morality,  as  a  precedent  to 
rest. 

Nordau's  error  probably  arises  from  the  fact  that 
"labor"  connotes  two  different  ideas,  for  which  we  re- 
quire and  fortunately  possess  two  different  words. 
"Labor"  may  be  accurately  defined  as  the  pleasurable 
exercise  of  our  faculties,  physical  or  mental,  in  the 
accomplishment  of  a  useful  task.  For  the  other  idea 
commonly  associated  with  "labor,"  we  may  take  the 
word  "toil,"  and  define  it  as  the  irksome  use  of  our 
faculties,  mainly  physical,  in  the  accomplishment  of 
a  necessary  or  imposed  task.  The  difference  is  the 
difference  between  voluntary  exertion  and  compulsory, 
between  the  pleasurable  and  the  irksome.  Toil,  en- 


76  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

forced  labor,  is  slavery.  Whether  the  laborer  is 
driven  by  the  whip  of  a  master  or  the  whip  of  neces- 
sity matters  little  to  him.  The  chattel  slavery  of  the 
field  has  given  place  to  the  new  wage  slavery  of  the 
factory,  with  a  great  theoretic  increase  of  liberty,  but 
with  little  substantial  betterment  of  the  worker.  Many 
object  to  "wage  slavery"  and  "wage  slave"  as  exag- 
gerated terms.  Judge  Pitney,  now  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  in  a  decision  while  judge  in 
New  Jersey,  held  that  picketing  was  robbery,  on  the 
ground  that,  "The  relation  of  master  and  servant  being 
established,  then  the  services  of  the  employee  became 
a  property  right."  A  picket,  striving  to  persuade  a 
worker  to  stop  giving  his  labor  as  "servant"  to  his 
"master,"  is  trying  to  rob  the  latter  of  a  property 
right !  What  is  the  difference  between  this  and  chattel 
slavery  ? 


One  of  our  chief  national  characteristics  is  that  we 
are  a  wasteful  people.  We  have  burned  up  more  of 
our  forests  than  we  have  used.  The  deer  and  bison, 
the  fur-bearing  animals,  the  fish  and  wild  fowl,  once 
so  plentiful,  we  have  nearly  or  quite  exterminated. 
We  build  houses  and  factories  of  flimsy  materials,  let 
them  burn  and  rebuild  them  of  the  same  over  and 
over,  at  a  cost  many  times  greater  than  to  build  well 
once  for  all.  It  is  estimated  that  $1,500,000,000  is 
spent  by  the  business  world  every  year  in  advertising, 
of  which  every  cent  is  economic  waste,  though  un- 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL    JUSTICE  77 

avoidable  under  our  present  system,  and  the  people 
pay  for  it  in  the  advanced  cost  of  living. 

One  of  our  magazines  recently  called  attention  to 
the  weak  spot  in  our  present  business  methods :  all 
effort  is  concentrated  on  cheapening  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction, and  practically  no  attention  is  given  to  the 
excessive  waste  in  selling.  This  is  probably  because 
it  is  easy  to  pass  on  the  cost  of  selling  to  the  buyer. 
The  result  is  that  it  costs  from  two  to  five  times  as 
much  to  sell  as  it  does  to  manufacture.  As  an  illus- 
tration of  how  the  buyer  is  made  to  pay,  it  is  related 
that  the  United  States  government  lately  bought 
12,000  typewriters  in  one  lot  (of  a  grade  that  usually 
sells  for  $100)  for  $14  each;  and,  at  that,  there  was 
a  profit  for  the  maker  of  a  dollar  on  each  machine.1 
What  does  it  cost  to  make  a  $3,000  automobile?  No- 
body but  the  maker  knows,  and  he  will  not  tell;  but 
probably  not  over  $500.  A  generation  ago,  as  every- 
body knows,  a  high-grade  sewing-machine  could  not 
be  bought  for  less  than  $60;  now  department  stores 
are  selling  better  built  machines  of  the  same  makes 
for  $20  or  less.  While  the  bicycle  craze  lasted,  the 
better  class  of  wheels  were  kept  at  $150;  and  perhaps 
some  readers  have  not  yet  forgotten  how  it  transpired 
in  a  law  suit  that  it  cost  less  than  $20  to  make  them. 
It  may  not  be  as  bad  as  this  in  all  forms  of  manu- 
facture, but  it  is  only  a  question  of  degree;  every- 

1  The  manufacturers  have  recently  explained  that  there  was 
additional  profit  derived  from  the  resale  of  old  machines  taken 
in  exchange;  and  that  this  accounts  for  the  low  price.  It  ac- 
counts only  for  a  small  part  of  the  margin  ($86)  between  the 
usual  price  and  the  price  to  the  government. 


78  THE  GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

where  the  cost  of  selling  is  excessive,  and  the  buyer 
pays  not  only  for  his  goods,  but  whatever  is  expended 
in  inducing  him  to  buy. 

The  defenders  of  the  capitalistic  system  have  long 
been  accustomed  to  claim  that,  with  all  its  defects, 
some  of  which  they  admit,  it  transacts  the  world's 
business  with  great  efficiency.  When  the  system  is 
analyzed,  however,  it  proves  guilty  of  such  prodigal 
and  reckless  waste  that  one  wonders  how  it  can  keep 
on  going.  A  conservative  estimate,  supported  at  every 
point  by  the  best  statistical  data  obtainable,  makes  this 
waste  amount  to  the  stupendous  sum  of  a  hundred 
billion  dollars  a  year — a  sum  that,  if  saved  under  a 
scientifically  managed  social  and  industrial  system, 
would  give  each  family  of  the  United  States  an  in- 
come of  $6,000,  or  ten  times  the  average  wage-earn- 
er's income  to-day.  We  have  not  even  the  consola- 
tion, such  as  it  would  be,  of  knowing  that  this  loss 
of  the  producer  is  the  capitalist's  gain — it  is  abso- 
lute, irrecoverable  loss.1 

We  are  not  only  wasteful  of  our  wealth,  but  of 
human  life.  We  waste  life  by  disease,  by  accident,  by 
overwork,  all  preventable.  A  half  million  people  die 
every  year  quite  unnecessarily,  and  subtract  just  so 
much  from  our  potential  wealth.  We  are  slowly  learn- 
ing that  men  are  more  valuable  than  property,  and 


*A.  M.  Simons,  "Wasting  Human  Life,"  Girard,  Kansas,  1912. 
Similar  figures  are  given  in  Koester's  "The  Price  of  Ineffi- 
ciency." Koester  is  a  civil  engineer,  educated  in  Germany;  his 
thoroughness  of  investigation  and  his  aloof  impartiality  give  his 
conclusions  great  weight. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  79 

that  the  greatest  of  all  our  extravagances  is  this  reck- 
less sacrifice  of  human  life.  A  revolution  would  not 
cost  more  in  blood  and  lives  than  the  present  indus- 
trial system  is  costing;  45,000  workers  are  killed  every 
year  by  criminal  negligence;  one  miner  of  every  hun- 
dred dies,  because  his  employer  cares  less  for  the  lives 
of  his  men  than  he  does  for  his  mules.  Nor  have 
we  completed  our  indictment,  when  we  have  counted 
those  killed  out-and-out  by  the  system;  those  who  die 
by  inches,  years  before  their  natural  time,  are  also  to 
be  charged  to  its  account.  In  England  employees  work 
on  the  average  55.2  hours  a  week,  but  one-half  of 
our  steel  workers  are  compelled  to  work  72  hours  a 
week,  about  a  third  work  more  than  72  hours,  while 
a  fourth  work  twelve  hours  a  day  for  seven  days  of 
the  week,  with  an  occasional  24-hour  work-day.  Such 
labor  cannot  but  result  in  early  death,  and  in  the  de- 
generation of  the  race,  physically,  intellectually  and 
morally.  No  demand  for  social  justice  is  more  insist- 
ent, or  appeals  more  strongly  to  the  conscience,  than 
the  demand  that  this  needless  sacrifice  of  human  life 
shall  cease. 

The  great  advance  made  within  a  few  generations 
in  productiveness  of  labor,  through  multiplication  of 
machinery,  has  been  of  slight  benefit  to  the  laborer, 
though  of  vast  profit  to  the  capitalist.  The  old  tools 
were  merely  aids  to  the  hands  and  all  labor  was  man- 
ual; the  new  tools,  machines,  have  almost  eliminated 
the  hand.  The  machine  now  produces  results  of 
power,  dexterity,  complexity  and  even  delicacy  that 
no  hand  ever  equaled.  But  "labor-saving"  machines 


8O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

belie  their  name;  they  have  saved  the  employer  cost 
of  labor,  but  they  have  not  made  the  worker's  toil 
lighter  nor  added  appreciably  to  his  wage.  And  the 
employer  has,  for  the  most  part,  been  able  to  see 
nothing  but  the  benefit  to  himself ;  the  just  claim  of  the 
worker  to  a  share  in  this  increased  production  has  been 
either  denied  or  ignored.  He  has  not  been  intelligent 
enough,  in  most  cases,  to  see  what  his  own  highest 
interests  demanded — that  the  greatest  ultimate  profit 
is  not  to  be  made  by  forcing  wages  down  to  the  lowest 
level  of  subsistence  for  the  workers.  Mr.  Redfield, 
the  Secretary  of  Commerce  in  Mr.  Wilson's  cabinet, 
sums  up  his  experience  as  a  manufacturer  and  his  con- 
clusions as  a  student  of  economics  in  these  words: 
"Given  the  scientific  spirit  in  management,  constant 
and  careful  study  of  operations  and  details  of  cost, 
modern  buildings  and  equipment,  proper  arrangement 
of  plant  and  proper  material,  ample  power,  space  and 
light,  a  high  wage  rate  means  inevitably  a  low  labor 
cost  per  unit  of  product  and  the  minimum  of  labor 
cost."  *  Swinish  selfishness  invariably  defeats  its  own 
purpose.  Only  social  justice  can  produce  social  pros- 
perity. 

One  difficulty  in  the  attainment  of  social  justice 
is  that  many  among  us  hold  so  obstinately  to  a  po- 
litical philosophy  that  experience  has  shown  to  be  with- 
out foundation  in  reality.  This  is  a  theory  of  the 
limited  functions  of  the  State,  out  of  which  grew  the 

*"The  New  Industrial  Day,"  p.  121.  Mr.  Redfield  considers 
this  summary  of  a  long  argument  so  important  that  he  prints 
it  in  italics. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  8l 

practical  maxim,  laissez  faire,  let  things  alone,  inter- 
fere as  little  as  possible  with  the  "natural  laws"  of 
society.  Those  who  entertain  this  theory  believe  that 
the  State  has  done  its  full  duty  when  it  has  applied 
the  Marquis  of  Queensbury  rules  to  industry  and  com- 
merce, and  insured  victory  to  the  man  who  has  the 
strongest  "punch."  This  appears  to  be  still  the  ideal 
of  most  economists,  that  the  victory  belongs  to  the 
strong.  "The  big  company  has  a  right  to  beat  the 
little  one  in  an  honest  race  for  cheapness  in  making 
and  selling  goods;  but  it  has  no  right  to  foul  and 
disable  its  competitor."  J  What  right  has  the  big  com- 
pany to  beat  except  the  right  of  bigness  ?  That  quota- 
tion helps  us  to  comprehend  the  cause  of  the  popular 
prejudice  against  the  great  capitalistic  concerns.  The 
mere  size  of  corporations  is  not  a  bad  thing,  but  it  is 
a  dangerous  thing.  For  size  means  great  resources, 
and  that  means  great  power,  and  power  is  dangerous. 
Power  is  nearly  always  used  for  selfish  purposes,  with- 
out regard  to  the  good  of  society.  The  people  are 
right,  therefore,  in  regarding  great  corporations  as  a 
menace;  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  the  corporation 
to  show  conclusively  that  it  is  promoting  the  public 
interest,  not  preying  on  the  public.  The  presumption 
is  invariably  against  it. 

The  protection  of  the  weak  is,  or  should  be,  quite 
as  much  a  function  of  the  State  as  giving  opportunity 
to  the  strong.  The  strong  need  no  aid;  they  can 

XJ.  B.  Clark,  "Control  of  Trusts,"  New   York,  1912,  revised 
ed.,  p.  28. 


82  THE    GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

always  look  out  for  themselves  and  their  own  inter- 
ests; if  government  fails  to  protect  the  weak  it  has 
little  social  justification  for  existence.  And  the  Gos- 
pel of  Jesus  certainly  enjoins  protection  of  the  weak 
as  the  first  duty  of  the  strong.  The  Gospel,  therefore, 
can  never  be  adjusted  to  either  competition  or  mo- 
nopoly— twin  forms  of  industrial  piracy,  both  of 
which  fly  the  black  flag  and  cut  every  rival's  throat. 
Plato  taught  that  the  end  of  the  State  is  to  make 
men  virtuous;  the  modern  view  is  that  the  end  of  the 
State  is  to  make  men  comfortable;  but  why  may  not 
men  be  made  both  virtuous  and  comfortable?  Is  the 
highest  virtue  attainable  without  a  certain  measure  of 
comfort?  Surely  the  two  ends  are  not  incompatible, 
much  less  antithetic.  The  ideal  of  the  State  should 
be  to  secure  such  organization  of  society  as  will  give 
to  every  person  opportunity  to  live  the  largest  life. 
This  is  also  the  idea  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus,  for  that  is 
what  the  kingdom  of  God  means. 

When  we  are  told,  then,  by  Herbert  Spencer  and 
others  that  the  best  government  is  that  which  governs 
least,  our  reply  is,  Yes,  if  it  is  despotism,  oligarchy, 
aristocracy,  using  the  machinery  of  government  to 
plunder  and  oppress  the  people.  It  was  under  such 
experience  that  the  maxim  was  developed.  But  if  the 
State  is  a  democracy,  a  people  governing  themselves 
for  the  common  good,  all  the  government  that  will 
promote  the  common  good  is  desirable,  and  that  will 
be  matter  for  experimentation,  not  for  a  priori  deci- 
sion. Men  decry  the  demand  for  more  legislation,  as 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    SOCIAL   JUSTICE  83 

merely  the  attempt  to  cure  evils  of  law  by  more  laws. 
But  law  is  only  the  orderly  means  by  which  men  act 
together  in  society  and  enforce  a  common  will  and 
purpose.  More  and  more  legislation  is  inseparable 
from  democracy.  May  it  also  be  increasingly  wise 
legislation!  The  alternatives  are  despotism  or  the 
mob. 

Another  obstacle  to  progress  toward  social  justice 
is  belief  that  men  cannot  be  made  righteous  by 
environment.  But  is  it  not  quite  as  true  to  insist  that 
men  cannot  become  righteous  without  suitable  environ- 
ment? If  we  interrogate  our  own  personal  experience, 
most  of  us  will  find  cause  to  acknowledge  how  potent 
environment  has  been  in  our  case.  We  can  easily 
conceive  a  world  in  which  it  would  be  as  easy  for  men 
to  do  right  as  it  now  is  hard,  because  we  have  been 
fortunate  enough  to  live  in  such  a  world.  That  is  to 
say,  our  environment  has  always  made  it  easy  for  us 
to  do  right  and  hard  to  do  wrong.  We  have  lived  in 
surroundings  and  companionship  full  of  incitement  to 
virtue  and  almost  free  from  incitements  to  evil.  Our 
chief  temptations  have  been  temptations  to  be  good 
and  to  do  good.  To  do  wrong  has  always  meant  for 
us  that  we  must  overcome  all  sorts  of  restraints  and 
obstacles  placed  in  our  way  by  our  conditions  of  life. 
Goodness,  service  of  our  fellows  and  brotherly  love 
have  been  normal  results  of  our  surroundings;  and  so 
far  as  we  have  failed  to  realize  such  ideals,  we  have 
been  opposed  to  our  environment,  not  in  harmony 
with  it.  It  ought  to  be  easy,  it  is  easy,  for  us  to 


84  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

imagine  a  society  in  which  not  merely  little  groups 
shall  furnish  their  members  such  environment,  but  the 
whole  should  be  like  this.  Nothing  less  is  demanded 
by  social  justice.  Nothing  else  is  contemplated  by 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  WOMAN    PROBLEM 

FAR  be  it  from  the  writer  even  to  seem  to  imply 
that  woman's  nature  is  so  incomposite,  her  relations 
to  society  so  uncomplicated,  as  to  present  but  one 
problem  for  solution.  The  definite  article  in  the  title 
of  this  chapter  is  emphatic.  It  is  intended  to  signify 
no  more  than  that  a  single  woman's  problem,  the 
economic,  is  what  immediately  concerns  our  discussion. 
Some  would  perhaps  prefer  to  call  this  a  group  of 
problems,  rather  than  one  problem;  yet  it  will  be 
found,  on  careful  examination,  that  the  problems  con- 
stituting the  group  all  grow  out  of  the  economic  in- 
equality of  woman,  and  that  to  secure  her  economic 
equality  is  to  solve  all  of  them  at  once. 


"Woman's  rights"  has  too  long  been  synonymous 
with  the  ballot.  A  marked  change  in  public  sentiment 
has  taken  place  within  a  decade  regarding  equal  suf- 
frage. The  conviction  has  been  rapidly  growing  that 
there  is  one  conclusive  argument  for  woman  suffrage : 
women  want  it.  There  are  no  arguments  against  it, — 

85 


86  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

only  prejudices.  The  adoption  of  woman  suffrage  as 
a  plank  in  the  Progressive  party's  platform  in  1912 
no  doubt  means  that  this  question  has  been  practically 
settled — that  it  is  only  a  question  of  time,  and  no 
long  time  at  that,  when  the  ballot  will  be  given  to 
women  in  all  the  States,  as  it  has  already  been  given 
in  many  of  the  newer  States  of  the  West.  Some  hard 
righting  will,  no  doubt,  yet  be  necessary  before  the 
end  is  reached,  for  prejudice  everywhere  dies  hard, 
but  the  goal  is  in  sight. 

But  equal  suffrage  is  only  one  of  the  demands  of 
that  remarkable  modern  movement  for  which  the  name 
Feminism  *  has  been  devised ;  in  some  respects  it  is  the 
least  important  demand.  Feminism  demands  for 
woman  not  merely  equality  at  the  polls,  but  equality 
everywhere — equality,  be  it  observed,  not  identity. 
Feminism  demands  that  whatever  woman  does  shall 
be  judged  as  work,  not  as  the  work  of  woman;  and 
it  demands  that  she  be  free  to  do  any  work  that  she 
cares  to  undertake.  In  other  words,  that  the  sex 
question  shall  be  eliminated  from  practical  affairs  as 
far  as  is  humanly  possible.  Wifehood  and  mother- 
hood will  always  be,  as  they  are  now,  the  highest 
calling  of  woman,  but  not  every  woman  is  called  to 
be  wife  and  mother,  any  more  than  every  man  is  called 

*An  anonymous  writer  in  the  Century,  for  April,  1914,  thus 
defines  Feminism :  "To  meet  life  untainted :  to  labor,  to  suc- 
ceed or  fail,  as  human  individuals  only;  to  feel  handicapped  by 
nature  only,  not  by  men;  to  seek  their  own  success  in  self- 
chosen  appropriate  paths  unhampered  by  laws  or  conventions 
from  which  men  are  exempt."  The  "square  deal"  for  their  sex, 
in  short. 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  8/ 

to  be  preacher  or  poet.  Feminism  merely  demands 
that  all  other  callings  shall  be  open  to  woman  on  equal 
terms,  and  that  the  only  question  of  her  entering  them 
shall  be  the  question  of  her  fitness.  That  can  be  de- 
termined, as  in  man's  case,  only  by  experiment. 

So  long  as  woman's  "wrongs"  were  conceived  to  be 
chiefly  or  wholly  her  exclusion  from  political  affairs, 
so  long  as  the  "rights"  demanded  for  her  consisted 
of  the  right  to  vote  and  hold  office,  the  agitation  in 
behalf  of  women  made  not  the  slightest  dent  in  the 
armor  of  conceit  worn  by  the  average  male  of  the 
species.  When  orators  declaimed  about  "down-trod- 
den woman,"  men  merely  grinned.  They  knew  that  in 
the  majority  of  homes  woman  rules  despotically. 
They  knew  that  the  laws — laws  made  and  administered 
by  men — are  on  the  whole  more  favorable  to  women 
than  to  men.  Even  the  average  policeman  will  not 
club  a  woman  as  quickly  or  as  brutally  as  a  man — 
he  remembers  mother  and  sister  and  wife.  The  police- 
man who  clubs  a  woman  while  in  uniform  is  probably 
a  wife-beater  out  of  uniform.  A  jury  in  any  State 
will  acquit  a  woman  on  evidence  that  would  convict  a 
man.1  It  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  get  a  verdict  of 
guilty  on  a  capital  charge  against  a  woman ;  and  when 
she  is  condemned,  almost  always  some  expedient  is 

1  In  three  years,  thirteen  women  charged  with  murder  were 
acquitted  in  Chicago  (Cook  County),  and  only  one  convicted, 
who  died  in  jail.  The  State's  Attorney  said:  "The  blame  is 
on  jurors,  who  seem  ready  to  bring  a  verdict  of  acquittal  when- 
ever a  woman  is  fairly  goodlooking,  or  is  able  to  turn  on  the 
floodgates  of  her  tears,  or  exhibits  a  capacity  for  fainting." 
Associated  Press  dispatch,  March  16,  1914. 


88  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

found  to  save  her  life.  Whatever  the  statutes  may 
say,  the  men  who  administer  them  have  practically 
abolished  capital  punishment  for  women.  In  one 
State,  a  woman  convicted  of  murder  on  the  clearest 
evidence  remained  unexecuted  for  thirteen  years,  be- 
cause one  governor  after  another  refused  to  set  a  day 
for  her  execution ;  and  she  was  finally  pardoned.  The 
property  laws  of  most  States  favor  women  at  the 
expense  of  men — so  far  favor  them  as  at  times  to  be 
unjust.  A  husband  is  legally  bound  to  support  his 
wife,  according  to  his  ability  and  station,  and  if  he 
fails  she  may  herself  buy  whatever  is  necessary  and 
he  is  liable  for  the  debt.  This  obligation  holds,  even 
if  she  has  money  of  her  own,  while  he  cannot  touch 
a  dollar  of  her  property  but  by  her  free  gift,  nor  is 
she  liable  for  his  debts. 

What  has  wrought  the  great  change  in  men's  atti- 
tude toward  the  agitation  for  woman's  rights  has  been 
the  enlarged  conception  of  those  rights  on  the  part  of 
women  themselves.  The  social  disabilities  of  women, 
rather  than  their  political  and  legal  grievances,  have 
roused  men  to  a  new  way  of  thinking.  This  is  no 
doubt  part  of  the  general  awakening  regarding  social 
conditions  that  is  characteristic  of  society  as  a  whole. 
Women  have  come  to  see  also  that  they  are  contend- 
ing, not  merely  against  artificial  discriminations  be- 
cause of  their  sex,  but  against  wrongs  rooted  in  eco- 
nomic conditions  with  which  sex  is  only  remotely  re- 
lated, if  related  at  all.  This  has  given  to  twentieth 
century  Feminism  both  a  breadth  and  a  depth  that 
were  absent  from  the  Woman's  Rights  movement  of 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  89 

the  nineteenth  century.  Men  who  were  indifferent  or 
hostile  to  the  political  aspirations  of  women  are  acces- 
sible to  ideas  regarding  the  economic  wrongs  of 
women.  Men  engaged  in  commerce  or  industry  have 
practical  knowledge  of  these  wrongs,  and  already  have 
latent  ethical  ideas  regarding  them  that  need  only  to 
be  stimulated  in  order  to  rise  to  the  region  of  con- 
scious thought  and  action.  Such  men,  for  the  most 
part,  acknowledge  the  obligations  of  Christian  ethics, 
so  far  as  they  understand  what  these  obligations  re- 
quire. 

It  is  the  office  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  to  arouse  these 
latent  ideas  and  to  clarify  them,  so  that  their  ethical 
bearings  will  be  definitely  apprehended.  It  has  long 
been  the  boast  of  apologists  that  Christianity  has  been 
the  chief  agent  in  the  uplifting  of  woman.  This  claim 
has  been  sharply  challenged  of  late,  and  some  have 
even  maintained  that  Christianity  has  actually  retarded 
the  emancipation  of  woman.  A  Feminist  writer  not 
long  ago  urged  it  as  a  reproach  against  the  Christian 
attitude  to  her  sex  that  women  are  classed  with  chat- 
tels and  domestic  animals  in  the  tenth  commandment. 
It  might,  of  course,  be  pointed  out  that  the  tenth  com- 
mandment is  of  Jewish  origin,  not  Christian;  but, 
apart  from  that,  the  objection  would  lose  force  if  those 
who  urge  it  would  reflect  a  moment  on  the  difference 
between  an  enumeration  and  a  classification. 

II 

We  have  already  seen  that  one  of  the  greatest  bless- 
ings of  civilization,  and  a  prime  condition  of  social 


90  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

progress,  is  leisure ;  a  reasonable  proportion  of  time  to 
be  used  in  rest,  recreation,  and  culture.  No  one  at 
present  profits  less  by  leisure  and  money  than  those 
who  have  most  of  both.  They  have  come  into  their 
kingdom  recently,  for  the  most  part,  and  have  as  yet 
not  the  least  idea  how  to  rule  it.  "Painting  the  town 
red,"  scattering  money  lavishly  up  and  down  the  Great 
White  Way,  is  the  one  means  they  can  devise,  in  their 
poverty  of  intellect  and  imagination,  to  get  rid  of  their 
surplus.  It  is  quite  as  true  of  American  women  as  of 
American  men  that  they  fall  into  two  classes:  those 
who  have  no  leisure  and  those  who  have  too  much. 
It  is  even  truer  of  women  than  of  men,  for  the  wives 
and  daughters  of  a  large  proportion  of  men  who  work 
belong  to  the  leisure  class.  What  will  they  do  with 
it?  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  present-day  ques- 
tions. Will  these  favored  women  choose  the  life  of 
idleness,  of  luxury,  of  self-indulgence,  or  the  life  of 
social  service?  Much  of  our  future  welfare  depends 
on  that  decision.  As  Ferrero  has  pointed  out  in  his 
"Women  of  the  Caesars,"  the  decay  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire was  in  no  small  degree  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
women  of  Rome's  upper  classes  chose  the  self-indul- 
gent life. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  working-woman  has  little 
or  no  leisure,  and  this  is  consequently  one  of  her  great- 
est needs.  She  needs  sorely  not  the  leisure  of  idleness, 
but  the  leisure  of  congenial  occupation.  This  is  the 
more  necessary  the  more  mechanical  and  dull  her  work. 
And,  as  machinery  takes  an  ever  larger  place  in  in- 
dustry, all  labor  will  tend  to  become  mechanical  and 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  9! 

deadening.  The  greater  need  then  of  leisure,  of  pur- 
suits that  will  be  a  genuine  re-creation,  of  systematic 
culture  of  body  and  mind.  Women  need  such  leisure 
more  than  men,  for  their  more  acute  sensibilities  suf- 
fer greater  harm  from  monotony  and  mechanism. 

The  whole  spirit  of  modern  industrialism  is  opposed 
to  such  sentiments,  and  the  capitalistic  system  is  incom- 
patible with  progress  in  this  direction.  The  spirit  of 
industrialism  is  to  extract  from  the  worker  the  last 
ounce  of  effort  of  which  he  is  capable;  and  the  capital- 
istic system  takes  from  the  worker  the  fruits  of  his 
labor,  beyond  the  barest  subsistence,  and  gives  them  to 
the  fortunate  few.  No  class  feels  so  keenly  the  effects 
of  this  social  injustice  as  women  who  must  work  for 
a  living.  No  class  has  profited  less  by  the  great  indus- 
trial and  commercial  development  of  the  past  century. 
It  was  a  long  step  forward  for  society  as  a  whole  when 
steam  was  harnessed,  new  machinery  was  invented, 
and  the  factory  resulted.  One  worker  could  then  pro- 
duce as  much  as  ten,  fifty,  a  hundred,  had  produced 
before.  So  great  an  increase  in  wealth  should  have 
meant  a  general  increase  in  social  well  being.  But  who 
got  the  increased  product?  There  was  another  great 
social  advance  when  the  railway  and  the  steamboat 
supplemented  the  factory,  and  stimulated  production 
by  simplifying  distribution.  But,  again,  who  got  the 
increased  product?  Still  another  tremendous  impulse 
has  been  given  during  our  own  day  to  all  forms  of  in- 
dustry, as  the  manifold  applications  of  electricity  came 
to  be  discovered.  But  who  got  the  increased  product  ? 
It  was  divided  as  an  old  salt  said  prize  money  is  di- 


92  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

vided  in  the  navy :  they  sift  it  through  a  ladder,  said 
he,  and  what  sticks  goes  to  the  enlisted  men,  the  rest 
goes  to  the  officers.  About  the  same  proportion  of  the 
increased  product  of  industry  fell  to  the  share  of  the 
producers;  the  non-producers  got  nearly  all.  And  of 
all  workers  the  women  got  least. 

In  1900  there  were  5,319,397  women  engaged  in 
gainful  occupations  out  of  a  population  of  28,246,384 
over  ten  years  of  age.  Nearly  one  woman  in  five  is  a 
wage  earner.  And  of  these  wage  earners,  1,312,668 
were  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits.  This 
is  the  largest  proportion  of  women  workers  to  popula- 
tion in  the  world,  and  makes  our  problems  more  acute 
than  those  of  any  other  land.  We  have  done  less 
toward  the  regulation  of  this  form  of  labor,  less  for 
the  protection  of  our  women  workers,  than  any  other 
country.  Even  Russia  has  more  humane  laws  for  the 
protection  of  women  than  some  of  our  American 
States.  Pennsylvania,  second  among  our  common- 
wealths in  population,  wealth,  and  industries,  ranks 
twenty-sixth  in  her  labor  legislation  for  women  and 
children.  Ponder  it  well,  men  of  America :  we  are  the 
most  backward  country  on  earth,  that  pretends  to  the 
possession  of  a  Christian  civilization,  in  the  protection 
of  womanhood.  And,  when  you  have  thought  well  of 
it,  be  proud,  if  you  can,  that  you  are  an  American  citi- 
zen! And  a  Christian! 

A  people  who  are  careless  of  their  women  and  chil- 
dren offend  against  a  fundamental  social  instinct,  for 
women  and  children  are  the  future  of  the  race.  What- 
ever harms  them  attacks  society  at  its  most  vulnerable 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  93 

point.  To  bear  and  rear  healthy  children  is  the  most 
important  of  race  functions,  and  society  cannot  afford 
to  permit  women  who  are  or  should  be  engaged  in  the 
work  of  maternity  at  the  same  time  to  do  exhausting 
work,  in  factories  or  anywhere  else.  Every  industry 
must  be  judged  by  this  test.  The  New  York  clothing 
trade  has  made  a  few  millionaires  and  thousands  of 
consumptives.  But  what  do  the  millionaires  care  about 
that?  It  is  "one  of  the  incidents  of  the  trade."  The 
employer  may  look  on  a  woman  as  merely  a  means  of 
producing  wealth,  but  the  community  ought  to  take  a 
different  view  of  the  matter,  and  assign  her  a  higher 
grade  in  the  scale  of  being.  It  is  the  function  of  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  to  inspire  this  higher  ethical  note  in 
industry,  but  what  is  the  gospel  actually  proclaimed 
accomplishing  ?  The  clothing  workers  have  been  strik- 
ing repeatedly  in  recent  years  to  better  their  condi- 
tions, among  other  things  to  abolish  tenement-house 
work ;  the  employers  have  been  fighting  hard  to  retain 
all  the  old  abuses,  especially  work  in  tenements.  Now, 
it  is  notorious  that  this  particular  form  of  industry  is 
exceedingly  hard  on  women  and  children.  But  in  their 
contests  how  many  expressions  of  sympathy  have  the 
strikers  received  from  Christian  sources  ?  How  many 
discussions  of  the  issues,  indicating  even  an  intelligent 
grasp  of  their  side  of  the  question,  did  we  read  in  re- 
ligious newspapers  or  hear  from  Christian  pulpits  ? 

The  conditions  of  women  workers  are  perhaps  worst 
in  the  textile  industries.  Attention  has  been  directed 
to  these  conditions  within  a  year  or  so  by  the  strikes  at 
Lawrence,  Massachusetts :  at  Little  Falls,  New  York, 


94  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

and  at  Paterson,  New  Jersey.  A  shocking  state  of 
affairs,  dimly  suspected  perhaps  before,  but  not  defi- 
nitely known,  has  been  forced  on  the  attention  of  the 
entire  nation.  Nobody  can  hereafter  plead  ignorance. 
The  fact  has  been  disclosed  that  girls  have  been  earn- 
ing from  $2.50  to  $5.00  a  week,  few  of  them  attaining 
the  higher  figure.  Women  have  been  working  sixty- 
five  hours  a  week  for  $3.00  (and  part  of  this  "over- 
time" work,  so  as  to  increase  the  pittance  a  little)  ; 
some  have  worked  as  many  as  eighty- four  hours  a 
week  for  a  maximum  wage  of  $7.00,  but  more  often 
$5.00.  Such  labor  is  continuous ;  the  workers  do  not 
leave  their  machines  even  for  luncheon,  eating  what 
they  can  snatch  as  they  work,  so  as  to  lose  no  time. 
And  often  such  labor  is  performed  in  extremely  un- 
sanitary conditions,  while,  of  course,  the  workers  must 
live  in  crowded  rooms,  amid  all  sorts  of  disease-breed- 
ing surroundings. 

While  these  are  cases  of  extreme  hardship,  perhaps, 
the  condition  of  women  workers  generally  is  little  bet- 
ter. Sanitary  surroundings  may  sometimes  be  better, 
but  the  economic  return  for  labor  is  much  the  same  in 
all  forms  of  industry,  and  in  all  localities.  The  Social 
Service  Commission  of  the  Inter-Church  Federation  of 
Philadelphia  issued  a  public  warning  in  1912  to  girls 
of  rural  Pennsylvania  not  to  come  to  that  city  for  work 
unless  they  have  prospect  of  a  situation  that  will  pay 
them  at  least  $8.00  a  week,  that  being  the  minimum 
on  which  a  girl  can  support  herself  there  respectably. 
At  the  same  time  they  stated  that  in  nine  of  eleven 
textile  industries  of  the  city  the  maximum  wage  falls 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  95 

below  this  minimum  requirement.  According  to  sta- 
tistics furnished  by  the  Federal  government,  the  aver- 
age earnings  of  women  and  girls  in  factories  is  $4.62 
for  the  first  year  and  $5.34  for  the  second.  After  ten 
years  they  attain  the  magnificent  wage  of  $8.48 ;  but  of 
the  total  number  employed  the  average  pay  of  40  per 
cent,  is  under  $6.00. 

Nor  is  the  case  any  better  when  we  turn  to  women 
employed  in  stores.  In  the  three  great  cities  of  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Chicago  there  are  nearly  36,- 
ooo  women  employed  in  the  department  stores  that 
are  so  great  a  feature  of  our  American  social  and  busi- 
ness life.  Their  average  weekly  wage  is  $6.13.  The 
average  girl  must  work  eight  years  before  she  can  re- 
ceive $8.00,  the  least  sum  that  will  support  her  re- 
spectably in  Philadelphia,  and  inadequate  in  either  New 
York  or  Chicago.  Other  cities  are  no  better.  Miss 
Butler's  careful  investigation  in  Baltimore  *  brought 
her  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are  twice  as  many 
earning  less  than  $5.00  as  there  are  earning  more  than 
$6.00.  The  minimum  cost  of  living  in  Baltimore  is 
estimated  by  Miss  Butler  as  $6.70,  which  certainly  does 
not  err  by  excess ;  yet  of  the  employees  of  stores  in  that 
city  54  per  cent,  are  paid  less  than  the  cost  of  board 
and  clothes. 

In  the  spring  of  1913  an  investigation  was  under- 
taken by  a  committee  of  the  Illinois  State  Senate  that 
disclosed  results  briefly  summarized  above ;  and,  while 
this  investigation  was  in  progress,  and  Chicago  em- 
ployers were  contending  that  $8.00  a  week  was  a  gen- 
*  "Saleswomen  in  Mercantile  Stores,"  New  York,  1912. 


96  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

erous  salary  for  a  working  girl  and  quite  enough  for 
her  to  live  on,  the  guardian  of  a  fifteen-year-old  girl 
came  into  a  New  York  court  and  declared  that  his 
ward  found  it  impossible  to  get  along  on  an  allowance 
of  $12,000  a  year.  As  her  estate  produces  an  income 
of  $50,000  a  year,  the  surrogate  obligingly  increased 
her  scanty  allowance  to  $20,000.  Is  any  comment  nec- 
essary ? 

Some  may  be  inclined  to  think  that  the  conditions 
in  the  smaller  towns  are  better  than  in  these  large 
cities.  The  only  difference  appears  to  be  a  quantitative 
one :  there  are  fewer  industries  and  fewer  workers  in 
the  small  city  than  in  the  large.  An  investigation  of 
the  smaller  cities  of  Pennsylvania  resulted  in  the  con- 
clusion that  no  working  woman  could  be  properly 
maintained  in  these  towns  for  less  than  a  weekly  wage 
of  $6.80;  and  this  included  nothing  for  amusement, 
only  the  absolute  necessities  were  taken  into  account. 
In  these  cities  the  average  pay  of  girls  is  rather  below 
than  above  $5.oo.1 

What  possibility  of  leisure,  what  possibility  of  cul- 
ture, what  possibility  of  physical  well-being,  what 
probability  of  continuance  in  virtue,  can  the  student  of 
the  woman  problem  find  in  such  facts?  Has  anybody 
the  hardihood  to  say  that  such  facts  accord  with  the 

1  The  case  is  little  different  in  England.  In  Birmingham  there 
are  said  to  be  116,000  working  women,  and  14  shillings  is  esti- 
mated to  be  the  lowest  wage  that  will  keep  a  woman  worker 
respectable  and  healthy.  The  average  wages  for  unskilled  labor 
for  women  over  seventeen  are  barely  10  shillings. 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  97 

Gospel  of  Jesus,  the  gospel  of  equality,  of  brotherhood, 
of  deliverance? 


Ill 


What  are  the  causes  of  this  economic  deficiency  of 
women,  and  are  they  removable?  The  causes  are,  in 
part,  general,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  defi- 
ciency is  general,  not  confined  to  any  one  branch  of 
industry  or  commerce.  Careful  investigation  shows 
that  one  great  cause  is  the  relative  inefficiency  of 
women's  labor.  It  is  not  a  fact,  as  many  women  have 
charged  and  still  believe,  that  women  are  generally 
paid  lower  wages  than  men  for  the  same  work.  There 
is  sometimes  sex  discrimination,  but  not  generally. 
The  real  fact  is  that  women  and  men  are  generally 
employed  in  different  kinds  of  labor,  and  women  are 
paid  lower  wages  for  less  efficient  service.  There  is 
little  sentiment  in  business;  employers,  as  a  rule,  no 
more  discriminate  against  women  than  they  discrimi- 
nate in  their  favor.  Male  and  female  employees  are 
alike  machines  for  production,  and  it  is  purely  a  ques- 
tion of  the  best  machine.  It  will  be  impossible  to  per- 
suade many  women  that  such  is  the  case,  but  investiga- 
tors of  their  own  sex  have  come  to  this  conclusion.1 
That  women's  wages  are  not  determined  by  sex  con- 
siderations is  proved,  among  other  ways,  by  the  fact 
that  their  wages  have  at  times  increased  in  higher  per- 
centage than  those  of  men. 

1  For  example,  Edith  Abbot  in  "Women  in  Industry,"  pp.  313- 
315. 


98  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Assuming  as  a  fact  this  relative  inefficiency  of  wom- 
en's work,  can  a  good  reason  or  good  reasons  be  as- 
signed for  it?  It  has  been  suggested  that  girls  show 
a  greater  tendency  than  boys  to  drift  into  employment 
by  the  route  of  least  resistance,  rather  than  prepare  for 
a  well-chosen  line  of  work.  There  are  fewer  trades 
and  skilled  occupations  for  them,  and  they  take  the 
first  work  that  offers,  through  ignorance  and  inertia. 
Woman's  expectation  of  marriage  makes  her  less  ef- 
ficient; she  takes  her  work  less  seriously;  likewise 
hers  is  a  shorter  working  life. 

One  of  the  chief  factors  in  the  problem,  therefore, 
is  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  women  workers.  We 
must  begin  back  of  the  time  when  they  seek  employ- 
ment— in  the  schools — and  secure  for  them  a  better 
training.  This  will  be  discussed  more  thoroughly  in 
the  chapter  on  "The  Problem  of  the  Child,"  but  just 
here  one  aspect  of  the  question  demands  attention: 
In  all  the  discussions  and  experiments  regarding  man- 
ual training  and  vocational  schools  attention  has  been 
paid  chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  to  the  needs  of  boys.  The 
training  of  girls  for  industrial  life  has  been  compara- 
tively neglected,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  their  need  is 
really  greatest.  We  shall  never  see  the  efficiency  of 
women  workers  greatly  increased  until  this  defect  in 
our  educational  scheme  is  remedied.  So  long  as  men 
enter  on  their  callings  on  the  whole  better  prepared 
for  efficient  service  than  women,  nothing  can  give  her 
economic  equality.  No  determination  of  society,  no 
fairness  of  employers,  no  legislation  can  give  validity 
to  the  equation  2=3. 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  99 

But  all  competent  investigators  are  agreed  that  inef- 
ficiency is  not  the  only  cause  of  low  wages  for  women. 
It  is  not  even  the  chief  cause.  The  chief  cause  is  the 
modern  revolution  in  industry,  the  effect  of  which  has 
been  felt  in  the  home  as  everywhere  else.  The  intro- 
duction of  factory-made  clothing,  food,  and  furnish- 
ings has  set  a  host  of  women  free  from  the  tasks  of 
their  grandmothers,  and  they  have  turned  to  other 
work.  Girls  go  into  factories  and  stores  and  offices,  in 
many  cases,  because  the  combined  earnings  of  the  fam- 
ily are  none  too  large  for  the  family's  support.  In 
other  cases  they  seek  work  rather  than  sit  idly  at  home 
and  be  supported  by  the  labor  of  father  and  brothers. 
In  either  case,  it  is  much  to  their  'credit  that  they  have 
responded  to  the  call  of  duty,  or  have  chosen  the  useful 
life  in  preference  to  the  ornamental.  But  the  inevit- 
able result  has  been  such  an  increase  in  the  body  of 
women  workers  as  to  cause  keen  competition  for 
work,  and  the  consequent  forcing  of  wages  to  the  low- 
est sum  that  the  most  needy  or  most  eager  workers  are 
willing  to  accept.  Inasmuch  as  a  large  part  of  women 
workers  live  at  home,  and  only  partially  support  them- 
selves, their  competition  for  employment  has  forced 
wages  below  the  subsistence  point  for  those  who  lack 
this  advantage.  Many  department  stores  will  employ 
only  girls  who  sign  a  statement  that  they  live  at  home ; 
and  justify  the  low  wages  paid  by  this  fact,  and  its  im- 
plication that  their  employees  do  not  depend  entirely 
on  their  wages  for  a  living. 

Another  serious  factor  in  producing  low  wages  for 


TOO  THE  GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

women  is  that  the  employer  is  able  to  deal  with  them 
as  units;  there  is  great  lack  of  organization  and  co- 
operation among  them,  as  compared  with  men.  It  is 
not  true  that  women  lack  the  faculty  of  organization. 
Every  church  has  long  known  how  efficiently  women 
can  organize  and  conduct  enterprises,  and  that  they 
often  show  superior  business  skill  in  such  work.  It 
is  true  that  their  efforts  have  been  mainly  confined  to 
things  that  are  in  themselves  trivial  and  not  worth 
their  while:  bazaars,  fairs,  and  festivals.  But,  in 
larger  and  more  important  enterprises,  such  as  wom- 
en's missionary  societies,  the  Women's  Christian 
Temperance  Union,  the  various  suffrage  organizations, 
they  have  been  uniformly  successful.  Women's  clubs 
and  leagues  in  great  variety  have  sprung  up  in  the  past 
two  decades,  and  hardly  one  of  them  has  been  a  prac- 
tical failure.  There  are  now  even  trades  unions  of 
women.  Still,  it  remains  true  that  this  spirit  of  co- 
operation is  a  very  recent  thing,  and  that  in  all  forms 
of  industry  women  are  still  far  behind  men  in  effective 
organization.  The  centuries-long  subjection  of  wom- 
en has  repressed  initiative  and  made  cooperation 
difficult  for  them.  But  they  are  learning  the  trick,  and 
already  they  are  beginning  to  teach  men  lessons  in 
what  we  have  fondly  persuaded  ourselves  was  our  ex- 
clusive game.  The  greater  subserviency  of  women 
to  custom  has  made  them  slow  to  adopt  the  principle  of 
cooperation.  But  they  are  fast  learning  that  only  the 
weak  fear  and  obey  customs ;  the  strong  make  customs. 
And  women  are  coming  to  realize  their  strength. 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  IOI 

A  favorite  explanation  of  women's  low  wages,  and 
one  that  has  been  much  insisted  on  by  the  wealthier 
classes,  is  the  distaste  for  domestic  service  among 
American-born  white  girls.  Of  the  1,124,383  domestic 
servants  returned  in  the  census  of  1900,  less  than  thir- 
teen per  cent,  were  native  born  of  native  parents,  while 
nearly  seventy  per  cent,  were  foreign  born  or  negroes. 
Domestic  service  was  once  the  chief  resort  of  the  un- 
trained woman;  now  scores  of  factories  and  stores 
offer  her  employment — at  starvation  wages,  to  be  sure, 
but  on  terms  so  much  more  satisfactory  to  her  than 
the  position  and  work  of  "servant"  that  she  will  no 
longer  accept  the  latter  at  any  price.  In  industry  or 
commerce  a  woman's  hours  may  be  long,  but  they  are 
fixed,  and  her  evenings,  Sundays,  and  holidays  are  hers 
to  spend  as  she  wills.  This  greatly  enlarged  leisure, 
and  the  fact  that  she  is  not  a  "servant,"  but  may  re- 
gard herself  as  a  "lady,"  give  her  such  a  sense  of  free- 
dom and  dignity  that  domestic  service  in  comparison 
seems  to  her  a  status  of  slavery.  No  wages  or  comfort 
will  be  regarded  by  women  bred  in  a  democracy  as  suf- 
ficient compensation  for  the  confinement  and  humilia- 
tion of  domestic  service.  Servility,  in  name  or  spirit, 
is  incompatible  with  democracy.  The  servant  problem 
is  already  acute,  and  will  become  increasingly  so,  as 
long  as  the  aristocratic  spirit  that  demands  "servants" 
lingers.  If  people  living  in  a  democracy  insist  on 
maintaining  artistocratic  institutions,  they  can  do  it 
for  a  time  by  importing  their  "servants"  from  foreign 
nations  where  real  aristocracy  exists. 


IO2  THE  GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 


IV 

The  ultimate  solution  of  the  problem  of  women's 
wages  must  be  postponed  until  we  consider  the  general 
problem  of  poverty.  For  a  complete  solution  must  be 
something  radical,  something  that  goes  to  the  very 
bottom  of  our  social  evils  and  deals  with  primary 
causes.  But  there  are  two  important  measures  pro- 
posed for  immediate  adoption  that  profess  nothing 
more  than  relief  at  the  points  of  greatest  pressure: 
a  minimum  wage  for  women  and  an  eight-hour  work- 
ing day.  The  ignorance  of  our  public  men  about  such 
measures  is  both  discouraging  and  disgraceful.  When- 
ever statutes  of  this  sort  are  proposed  and  discussed, 
the  articles  in  our  newspapers,  the  speeches  in  our  leg- 
islatures, and  other  forms  of  public  debate  invariably 
proceed  on  the  tacit  assumption  that  these  are  the 
crude  proposals  of  theorists,  experiments  in  legislation 
now  to  be  made  for  the  first  time,  propositions  that 
we  undertake  a  pioneer  work  in  social  reform.  Where- 
as the  fact  is,  as  every  public  man  who  pretends  to 
intelligence  should  know,  that  every  measure  of  social 
justice  proposed  in  the  United  States  in  recent  years 
has  a  counterpart  in  European  countries  that  has  been 
in  successful  operation  for  years,  sometimes  for  a  gen- 
eration. 

A  minimum  wage  bill,  for  example,  was  passed  in 
England  in  1906,  and  not  for  women  only.  England 
had  been  shown  the  way  by  one  of  her  Australian  colo- 
nies. Victoria  adopted  the  minimum  wage  for  work- 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  103 

ers  of  both  sexes  in  1896.  At  first  it  applied  only  to 
five  "sweated"  trades:  the  making  of  shoes,  bread, 
clothing,  underwear,  and  furniture.  Its  operation  was 
so  successful,  and  so  won  the  approval  of  both  em- 
ployers and  employed,  that,  by  1910,  virtually  all  the 
industries  had  been  included  in  its  scope.  Experience 
confirmed  economic  theory,  and  both  showed  that  a 
minimum  wage  tends  to  increase  production,  by  in- 
creasing the  efficiency  of  both  workers  and  establish- 
ments. The  latter  is  accomplished  by  the  elimination 
of  those  concerns  that  can  be  maintained  only  by  levy- 
ing a  tax  on  the  community  to  make  good  their  own 
defects.  Those  concerns  that  are  most  favorably  situ- 
ated, best  equipped,  and  managed  with  most  ability 
get  the  business,  and  society  profits  by  the  elimination 
of  costly  production  of  goods  by  the  unfit  and  in- 
capable. 

The  proposition  to  ensure  to  women  workers  such 
compensation  as  will  maintain  them  in  comfort  and 
decency  is  nothing  else  than  the  principle  of  economy 
translated  into  the  terms  of  modern  business  and  social 
life.  "Conservation"  is  one  of  the  watchwords  of  our 
time.  Conservation  is  too  often  narrowly  interpreted 
to  mean  only  material  things:  our  forests,  mines, 
water-power,  and  the  like.  This  narrow  commercial 
interpretation  is  inadequate ;  the  most  needed  conserva- 
tion is  the  conservation  of  human  beings.  The  law 
of  the  sea  must  become  the  law  of  the  land:  women 
and  children  first. 

Employers  oppose  a  minimum  wage  law  on  the  plea 
that,  if  they  were  compelled  to  pay  the  wage  indicated, 


IO4  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

they  could  no  longer  conduct  their  enterprises,  and 
must  either  become  bankrupt  or  go  out  of  business. 
The  sufficient  reply  to  this  plea  is :  Any  business  that 
cannot  be  maintained,  save  by  paying  women  a  wage 
below  a  fair  living  standard,  is  a  business  that  ought 
not  to  continue.  There  are  probably  fewer  such  than 
many  suppose,  far  fewer  than  interested  employers 
assert,  but  there  ought  to  be  none.  This  is  not  a 
harsh  judgment  founded  on  vague,  impractical  senti- 
ment, but  what  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  call  "a  cold 
business  proposition."  For  such  a  business,  instead  of 
contributing  to  the  wealth  of  the  community,  is  a  tax 
on  the  community's  resources.  Society  has  to  make 
good  the  deficiency  of  wages ;  in  some  form  and  in  the 
long  run  the  deficient  income  must  be  supplied.  If  the 
underpaid  worker  lives  at  home,  her  family  must  con- 
tribute to  her  support,  and  that  contribution  is  their 
tax  paid  to  keep  going  an  unprofitable  business.  If  she 
does  not  live  at  home,  soon  or  late  the  deficiency  must 
be  made  good  by  some  form  of  "charity."  The  em- 
ployee becomes  ill  and  must  be  treated  free  of  charge 
in  some  hospital  or  dispensary ;  or  she  becomes  a  pau- 
per and  must  be  wholly  supported  at  public  expense; 
or  she  contracts  tuberculosis  and  must  be  sent  to  a 
State  sanatorium;  or  she  goes  on  the  street.  In  any 
case,  the  community  ultimately  pays  the  tax.  People 
must  live,  people  do  live,  and,  if  their  wage  will  not 
maintain  them,  the  burden  of  their  maintenance  in  the 
end  falls  on  the  public.  It  is  as  certain  as  mathe- 
matics. 

Society  has  thus  far  elected  to  maintain  at  great 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  IO5 

cost  public  and  private  charitable  institutions  to  care 
for  the  workers  who  have  been  insufficiently  paid, 
rather  than  compel  employers  to  do  justice.  If  it 
wishes,  it  can  continue  that  practice,  but,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  it  is  hardly  economical.  Millions  are  ex- 
pended to-day  in  charities  that  ought  to  go  into  the 
pay  envelopes  of  the  workers;  and,  if  they  did  go 
there,  small  need  would  be  felt  of  the  charities.  It  is 
thus,  on  one  side,  merely  a  problem  of  economics, 
while,  on  the  other,  it  is  a  problem  of  humanity,  of 
justice,  of  the  practical  application  of  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus. 

We  must  not,  however,  blink  the  fact  that  the 
minimum  wage  and  the  eight-hour  working  day  are 
merely  palliatives.  It  is  even  a  question  if  they  would 
long  palliate.  The  serious  economic  criticism  is 
made  of  the  minimum  wage  that  its  effect  would  be 
only  temporary.  It  would  immediately  produce  non- 
employment  of  those  women  whose  labor  cannot  be 
made  profitable  at  the  minimum  fixed  by  law;  and 
they  would  either  become  a  tax  on  society  in  some 
form,  or  would  seek  employment  in  other  indus- 
tries only  to  lower  wages  in  them.  Or,  even 
supposing  that  this  difficulty  could  be  surmounted, 
and  that  all  women  workers  can  be  given  em- 
ployment and  paid  as  the  law  directs,  cost  of  produc- 
tion will  be  increased,  prices  must  be  raised,  the  cost 
of  living  rises,  the  minimum  wage  becomes  inade- 
quate, and  the  last  state  of  the  woman  worker  is  at 
least  no  better  than  the  first.  Under  the  wage  system 
and  industrial  competition  there  must  ever  be  the  same 


IO6  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

vicious  circle :  higher  cost  of  living  leads  to  a  demand 
for  higher  wages,  and,  this  gained,  there  follows 
greater  cost  of  production,  higher  prices,  and  increased 
cost  of  living  again.  There  is  no  end  to  the  process, 
and  no  real  relief  for  the  workers  in  it  anywhere. 
Nevertheless,  as  temporary  palliatives,  the  minimum 
wage  and  the  shortened  working  day  are  worth  try- 
ing. The  wisest  economists,  though  they  may  guess, 
cannot  know  how  they  will  work  until  they  are  tried. 

It  is  the  same  problem  that  must  be  faced  in  some 
form  by  all  organizations  and  reformers  that  are  ex- 
perimenting with  palliatives,  because  they  lack  either 
insight  or  courage  to  attempt  a  radical  remedy.  The 
trades  unions  are  meeting  the  same  difficulty.  What 
has  the  workingman  accomplished  through  his  unions 
in  the  way  of  social  betterment?  In  some  cases,  not 
in  all,  he  has  won  an  increase  of  wages.  But  if  he 
must  pay  the  amount  of  this  increase  and  more  in 
higher  cost  of  living,  wherein  is  he  helped?  And  the 
undeniable  fact  is  that  cost  of  living  has  increased 
much  faster  than  wages  for  two  decades,  and  the  proc- 
ess seems  likely  to  go  on  indefinitely. 

Next  to  the  ignorance  of  men  who  lead  public  opin- 
ion, and  of  the  legislators  who  enact  public  opinion 
into  law,  the  greatest  obstacle  to  progress  in  dealing 
with  this  economic  problem  is  our  courts.  We  call 
them  courts  of  justice,  but  they  have  too  often  proved 
courts  of  injustice.  For  our  sins  we  are  afflicted  with 
a  lot  of  Bourbon  judges,  who  have  neither  learned  any- 
thing nor  forgotten  anything  in  a  lifetime  of  legal 
practice,  who  have  stood  stock  still  intellectually  and 


THE  WOMAN  PROBLEM  lO? 

ethically  while  the  world  has  run  by  them.  In  their 
devotion  to  precedents  that  have  come  down  to  them 
from  a  different  social  order,  they  cannot  see  the  de- 
mands of  the  present.  Our  courts  are  standing  to-day 
as  a  serious  obstacle,  and  often  as  an  impassable  bar- 
rier, to  social  reform.  They  have  decided,  for  ex- 
ample, that  a  statute  prescribing  shorter  hours  of  labor 
for  women  is  unconstitutional,  because  it  abridged 
women's  freedom  of  contract!  How  well  such  a  de- 
cision accords  with  the  favorite  maxim  of  lawyers, 
that  the  law  is  the  perfection  of  reason! 

Worst  obstacle  of  all  to  progress  is,  no  doubt,  the 
indifference  of  well-to-do  people  in  general,  who  are 
in  no  way  personally  affected  by  the  wrongs  and  suf- 
ferings of  working  women.  If  society  at  large  does 
not  advocate  the  present  iniquities,  it  at  least  tacitly 
acquiesces  in  them;  to  a  large  degree  it  profits  by 
them;  and  it  has  hitherto  refused  to  face  the  problem, 
but  has  taken  refuge  in  cowardly  silence.  At  critical 
moments  it  fails  to  speak  the  decisive  word  in  favor  of 
justice  and  progress.  We  call  ourselves  a  Christian 
nation;  we  profess  some  respect  for  the  teachings  of 
Jesus,  for  the  Golden  Rule,  for  the  Beatitudes.  Ac- 
tions speak  louder  than  words,  and  by  our  actions  we 
give  the  lie  direct  to  every  such  profession.  By  our 
fruits  we  are  known,  and  all  our  conduct  gives  em- 
phatic approval,  not  to  the  social  ethics  of  Jesus,  but  to 
such  beatitudes  as  this :  Blessed  are  the  exploiters,  the 
sweaters,  the  oppressors  of  women,  for  theirs  is  the 
Kingdom  of  Profit. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   PROBLEM    OF    THE   CHILD 

To  inspire  men  to  perform  their  social  duties  is  a 
prime  object  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus.  That  is  the  way 
of  salvation  for  the  individual  and  for  society — a  way 
by  which  the  one  is  delivered  from  sin  and  the  other 
from  misery.  Of  all  the  social  duties,  none  can  take 
precedence  of  duty  to  the  child.  A  Bill  of  Rights  for 
childhood,  that  has  been  widely  adopted  as  a  basis  for 
social  work,  declares  that  every  child  has  an  inalien- 
able right :  To  be  born  right ;  To  be  loved ;  To  have 
his  individuality  respected;  To  be  trained  wisely  in 
body,  mind,  and  spirit ;  To  be  protected  from  evil  per- 
sons and  influences;  To  have  a  fair  chance  in  life. 
These  rights  of  the  child  impose  corresponding  duties 
of  parenthood.  But  duties  of  parents  are  duties  of  so- 
ciety also,  which  is  bound,  for  its  own  present  welfare 
and  future  happiness,  to  supplement  the  performance 
of  parents  wherever  that  is  deficient. 

These  inalienable  rights  of  the  child  are  violated  at 
almost  every  turn,  and  by  every  class  of  society.  Nat- 
urally, each  class  has  its  own  pet  methods  of  violation. 
Among  the  well-to-do  the  tendency  is  toward  the  hurt- 
ful indulgence  of  children.  The  American  spoiled 

108 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    CHILD  1 09 

child  is  the  marvel  and  the  disgust  of  intelligent  for?- 
eign  observers.  Among  the  poor  the  tendency  is 
toward  inhuman  abuse  of  children,  partly  in  the  way 
of  actual  physical  violence,  partly  in  loading  them 
with  tasks  too  heavy  for  their  years.  The  ethical  re- 
sults, though  quite  different,  are  about  equally  injuri- 
ous to  social  welfare,  but  the  economic  results  are 
worst  in  the  case  of  the  poor  child.  According  to  El- 
len Key,  this  is  the  century  of  the  child.  As  one  looks 
about  him  one  can  hardly  escape  the  conviction  that 
this  is  expression  of  a  hope  rather  than  statement  of 
fact.  May  achievement  speedily  make  good  this  pro- 
phetic title! 

What  is  the  century  thus  far  doing  for  the  child? 
It  is  still  permitting  him  to  be  exploited  by  a  system 
of  child  labor  that  is  but  a  euphemism  for  child  slavery 
and  child  murder — a  system  compact  of  woeful  waste 
and  brutal  savagery.  Of  the  male  children  reported 
by  the  census  of  1900  between  the  ages  of  ten  and 
fourteen  (4,083,041)  there  were  875,640  wage-earn- 
ers; and  of  the  3,997,193  female  children  321,982  were 
workers.  In  all,  1,197,324  of  the  nation's  children 
were  earning  their  bread  and  helping  to  support  their 
families.  Not  a  single  one  of  them  should  have  been 
at  work.  Thousands  of  children  of  still  tenderer 
years  are  engaged  in  daily  labor.  Little  tots  that  ought 
to  be  in  kindergarten  are  working  for  thirty  cents  a 
day.  Children  all  over  our  land  are  hopelessly  toiling 
in  the  treadmill  of  industry  who  ought  to  be  going 
with  shining  morning  faces  to  school  and  filling  the 


IIO  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

playgrounds  with  their  joyous  laughter.  Many  of  our 
"good"  people  cannot  believe  that  such  statements  are 
anything  but  a  hideous  slander.  It  seems  like  treason 
to  one's  country  to  believe  that  a  system  so  full  of 
cruelty  and  iniquity  can  exist  among  us.  It  is  the  ig- 
norance, the  incredulity,  the  supineness  of  the  "good" 
that  keep  such  a  system  in  existence.  It  would  be  so 
disagreeable  to  believe  that  these  things  are  true,  for 
then  we  should  be  compelled  to  do  something  about  it ; 
our  consciences  would  not  let  us  rest;  so  it  is  much 
more  comfortable  to  disbelieve. 

What  kind  of  a  people  must  we  be  to  permit  such 
things  and  feign  a  convenient  ignorance  of  them  ?  For, 
of  course,  no  one  is  really  ignorant.  No  one  can  pos- 
sibly shut  eyes  and  ears  tight  enough  to  keep  himself 
from  knowing.  For  several  years  the  newspapers  have 
been  full  of  evidence,  that  not  even  the  careful  editing 
of  the  slaves  of  capitalism  could  evacuate  of  all  their 
significance.  Did  Christian  men  and  women  see  and 
ponder  the  testimony  printed  in  the  summer  and  fall 
of  1912  concerning  child  labor  in  the  canning  factories 
of  the  great  Empire  State?  It  was  shown  that  1,259 
children  under  sixteen  were  employed  in  the  canneries 
investigated;  141  less  than  ten  years  and  14  less  than 
six.  Mere  babes  were  kept  at  work  shelling  pease  and 
stringing  beans  until  their  fingers  cracked  open  and 
had  to  be  done  up  in  rags.  Surely  an  aroused  and 
militant  conscience  will  do  something  to  end  such 
abuses,  or  we  shall  soon  have  to  take  lessons  in  human- 
ity from  Turkey  and  China. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD  III 


Of  all  forms  of  social  waste,  child  labor  is  the 
least  excusable,  because  it  is  so  patently  foolish.  The 
child  is  the  embodied  future.  We  can  never  have  good 
citizenship  without  protected  childhood.  Premature 
work  means  premature  decay  of  physical  energy  and 
moral  fiber.  A  long  and  well-trained  youth  means  full 
development  of  human  powers  and  a  long,  productive 
life.  A  short  youth  means  imperfect  development  of 
body  and  mind,  and,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  a 
short  and  comparatively  unproductive  life.  Child  labor 
is  a  process  of  squandering  future  wealth  to  satisfy 
a  present  need — that  is  to  say,  it  would  be  that,  were 
there  any  present  need,  as  to  which  something  will  be 
said  later.  Child  labor  denies  the  child  proper  educa- 
tion, demands  of  immature  bodies  and  minds  what 
only  maturity  can  safely  attempt  to  give.  It  places 
the  child  at  the  most  plastic  period  of  life  under  con- 
ditions that  not  only  fail  to  develop  him  into  a  normal 
human  being,  but  stunt  his  body  and  stupefy  his  mind 
and  give  a  wrong  twist  to  his  moral  nature.  An  ex- 
perienced manufacturer  has  said:  "You  can  protect 
a  machine,  you  can  guard  the  buzz-saw,  but  no  law 
that  you  can  enact  can  in  a  large  industry  protect  the 
heart  and  soul  of  a  child." 

Books  like  "The  Bobbin  Boy,"  in  which  boys  of  a 
former  generation  were  told  about  the  early  life  of 
Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  and  similar  tales  of  the  rise  of 
poor  boys  to  distinction  or  wealth,  while  they  may 


112  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

have  done  something  to  stimulate  the  ambition  of  the 
young,  have  accomplished  untold  harm  by  encouraging 
the  impression  that  going  to  work  at  a  tender  age  is, 
on  the  whole,  favorable  to  achievement.  Physiological 
science  is  absolutely  and  irrevocably  opposed  to  such  a 
conclusion.  It  maintains  that  child  labor  is  a  costly 
method  of  discounting  the  future,  which  inevitably 
curtails  the  total  contribution  of  the  individual  to  the 
wealth  of  the  world  and  makes  society  just  that  much 
poorer.  Men  are  not  so  foolish  in  the  treatment  of 
domestic  animals  as  they  show  themselves  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  young  of  their  own  species.  What  farmer 
would  work  a  young  colt  ?  And,  when  the  farmer  does 
begin  to  work  his  colt,  does  he  set  him  to  plowing 
from  sunrise  to  sunset?  Any  farmer  who  did  that 
would  be  promptly  suspected  of  insanity  by  all  his 
neighbors.  But  a  child,  even  at  fourteen,  is  still  a 
"colt."  Is  a  two-legged  colt  worth  less  than  the  four- 
legged?  That  he  is  seems  to  be  the  judgment  of 
thousands  who  possess  both,  if  we  may  infer  their 
mental  processes  from  their  actions. 

The  right  of  the  child  to  his  childhood,  and  the  duty 
of  society  to  protect  childhood,  are  ethical  principles 
that  do  not  require  to  be  argued  or  proved.  Merely 
to  be  stated  is  sufficient  to  secure  assent  to  them  from 
any  normal  man  or  woman.  But  the  man  engaged  in 
business,  especially  in  manufacturing,  is  not  a  normal 
man.  He  has  become  so  wonted  to  some  abuses  that 
he  does  not  see  them;  he  cannot  even  see  them  when 
they  are  pointed  out  to  him.  We  must  appeal  from 
him,  therefore,  to  the  larger  public.  Society  at  large 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    CHILD  113 

suffers  more  than  the  child  himself  from  neglect  to 
give  him  adequate  protection.  For  the  child  is  our 
most  valuable  national  asset ;  and  to  waste  this  source 
of  wealth,  or  even  to  fail  to  make  the  most  of  it,  is 
criminal  folly. 

Socially  speaking,  the  worst  use  to  which  we  can 
put  a  child  is  to  put  him  to  work.  Play  should  be 
the  only  work  of  a  child.  To  be  sure,  this  is  flat  con- 
tradiction of  the  theory  by  which  most  of  us  were 
bred ;  for  in  our  childhood  we  were  taught  that  "work 
is  good  for  us,"  and  various  more  or  less  disagreeable 
tasks  were  exacted  of  us  by  our  parents,  on  the  princi- 
ple that  the  more  disagreeable  the  task  the  more  valu- 
able as  discipline.  But  modern  psychology  has  proved 
conclusively  that  such  a  theory  of  child  training  is 
altogether  wrong.  Play,  in  the  sense  of  the  agreeable 
exercise  of  our  faculties,  is  the  way  by  which  they 
develop  most  rapidly  and  normally.  Play  is  not  only 
the  best  means  of  developing  body  and  mind,  but  has 
equal  ethical  possibilities,  and  is  the  most  effective  of 
all  preventives  of  juvenile  delinquency.  The  child  who 
is  not  taught  to  play  as  well  as  permitted  to  play  is 
not  only  deprived  of  his  birthright  but  is  subjected  to 
a  direct  course  of  preparation  for  the  penitentiary. 

Not  enough  attention  has  been  as  yet  directed  to 
the  fact  that  play  is  a  great  school  of  ethics.  The  first 
requirement  of  all  childhood  games  is  to  "play  fair," 
and  to  learn  that  rule  thoroughly  is  the  foundation  of 
subsequent  character.  Possibly  some  of  us  can  recol- 
lect among  our  schoolmates  boys  who  never  learned 
fairness  on  the  playground.  If  we  have  watched  them 


114  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

in  their  later  career  we  have  also  noticed  that  they  have 
never  played  fair  in  business  or  profession;  the  habit 
of  taking  an  unfair  advantage  that  they  acquired  as 
children  has  stayed  by  them  all  their  lives.  If  the 
history  of  men  who  have  built  up  great  industries  and 
fortunes  by  secret  rebates  and  other  unfair  advantages 
could  be  investigated,  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  that 
it  would  be  found  that  as  schoolboys  they  were 
"cheats"  and  "snitches."  The  boy  who  defrauds  his 
playmates  at  "one-old-cat"  and  "duck-on-the-rock"  is 
the  future  trust  magnate.  For  the  children's  rule  of 
fair  play  in  games  is  just  the  Golden  Rule  applied  to 
the  affairs  of  the  playground;  and  all  our  social  ills 
are  merely  failure  to  apply  that  same  rule  in  the  great 
game  of  life. 

The  freshness  and  spontaneity  that  are  so  valuable 
gifts  in  every  serious  pursuit — rand  so  rare — are  de- 
veloped in  the  child  by  play.  It  is  no  small  part  of 
the  tragedy  of  life  that  these  qualities  are  gradually 
crushed  out  of  the  man.  Even  the  infrequent  cases 
in  which  they  survive  would  probably  not  exist  but 
for  a  joyous  childhood.  Society's  problem,  one  of  the 
gravest  of  problems,  is  to  make  these  cases  less  rare,  to 
increase  freshness  and  spontaneity  everywhere  and 
make  life  better  worth  living  for  all.  This  can  be  done 
only  by  wise  training  during  the  tender  and  formative 
years,  and  for  this  reason  the  child's  right  to  his  child- 
hood must  be  asserted  and  protected.  Such  protection 
will  increase  the  productive  power  of  labor  indefinitely. 
Everybody  knows  that  a  man  does  his  best  work  when 
he  is  interested  in  his  task,  and  that  there  cannot  be  a 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   CHILD  115 

better  recipe  for  poor  work  than  to  set  a  man  at  a  task 
in  which  he  takes  no  interest.  When  men  bring  to 
industry  more  of  the  child's  freshness  their  work  will 
become  play,  a  pleasurable  exercise  of  their  faculties. 
From  the  viewpoint  of  ultimate  efficiency,  therefore, 
child  labor  becomes  an  obstacle  to  progress  that  so- 
ciety cannot  afford. 

II 

Child  labor  is  socially  unnecessary.  The  social  sur- 
plus of  wealth  is  already  very  great  and  is  increasing 
rapidly  from  year  to  year.  Individuals  may  need  the 
labor  of  the  child,  society  does  not.  Arguments  in 
favor  of  child  labor  on  economic  grounds  that  are 
often  put  forth  by  interested  manufacturers  are  found 
on  analysis  to  be  unfounded.  No  legitimate  business 
will  suffer  from  giving  adequate  protection  to  children. 
But  even  if  the  contrary  were  true,  and  it  were  demon- 
strated that  certain  industries  would  suffer  by  shorten- 
ing the  hours  of  child  labor  and  raising  the  age  limit, 
the  answer  of  society  must  be:  let  them  suffer.  So- 
ciety cannot  afford  to  maintain  industries  by  such  a  tax 
on  its  resources  as  child  labor  involves.  If  an  industry 
cannot  stand  on  its  own  feet,  without  this  form  of 
subsidy  from  society,  let  it  perish.  Such  an  industry 
is  not  a  necessity,  but  a  luxury  far  too  costly. 

As  matter  of  fact,  wherever  additional  protection 
has  been  given  to  children,  not  only  has  industry  not 
suffered,  but  the  output  has  been  increased  and  em- 
ployment has  been  given  to  a  larger  number  of  per- 


Il6  THE   GOSPEL  OF   JESUS 

sons.  Experience  has  convinced  manufacturers,  who, 
before  experience,  were  opposed  to  the  legislation,  that 
protection  of  children  is  a  benefit  to  industry.  It  could 
not  be  otherwise.  Economic  theory,  founded  on  ob- 
servation, maintains  that  child  labor  is  unprofitable 
for  two  reasons.  The  first  is  that,  while  it  seems 
cheap,  it  is  the  dearest  labor  in  the  long  run — dearest 
because  least  efficient.  It  is  a  short-sighted  industrial 
finance  that  looks  only  at  the  pay-rolls  instead  of  scan- 
ning the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  output.  Employ- 
ing inefficient  labor,  even  at  low  cost,  entails  a  loss  on 
any  manufacturing  business.  The  man  who  cannot 
see  that  is  not  fit  to  be  in  business,  and  probably  will 
not  be  long,  if  he  has  shrewd  competitors.  Child  labor 
is  not  only  future  waste  but  present  loss.  A  second 
economic  objection  to  child  labor  is  that  it  lowers 
the  standard  of  wages  and  of  working  and  living  con- 
ditions, and  so  lessens  the  efficiency  of  all  labor.  The 
child  is  a  competitor  of  adult  laborers,  even  of  his 
own  parents,  whom  he  and  they  fancy  that  he  is  help- 
ing. Child  labor  tends  to  lower  sanitary  standards, 
for  the  child  will  submit  to  conditions  against  which 
adults  would  revolt.  Thus  industries  that  make  large 
use  of  child  labor  become  parasites  on  society,  for  they 
must  be  supported  by  what  is  in  effect  a  tax  on  other 
more  economically  conducted  enterprises. 

The  laws  that  have  thus  far  been  enacted,  and  many 
of  those  now  proposed  for  enactment,  fail  to  promise 
any  considerable  betterment,  partly  because  of  feeble 
enforcement,  partly  because  the  advocates  of  reform 
have  been  and  are  too  timid  to  ask  for  laws  with  teeth 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    CHILD 

in  them.  Child  labor  must  not  only  be  regulated  in 
all  industries,  but  should  be  prohibited  in  some :  in  all 
those  that  tend  to  destroy  health  and  retard  growth. 
It  is  bad  enough  that  adults  must  be  employed  in  such 
institutions;  it  is  intolerable  that  children  should  be 
admitted  to  them.  The  age  of  employment  is  too  low ; 
fourteen  years  is  the  highest  we  have  had  courage  yet 
to  demand ;  it  should  be  sixteen,  or  even  higher.  But 
the  whole  principle  of  an  exclusive  age  limit  is  wrong; 
fitness,  not  age,  should  be  the  test  of  individual  em- 
ployment. Aside  from  a  convincing  certificate  of  the 
required  age — and  thousands  of  certificates  now  issued 
are  fraudulent — two  other  qualifications  should  be  re- 
quired :  First,  the  child  offering  himself  for  employ- 
ment should  be  required  to  present  a  certificate  of 
graduation  from  a  grammar  school,  an  honorable  com- 
pletion of  the  entire  eight  grades.  Second,  there 
should  be  a  physical  test ;  the  child  should  be  examined 
by  a  proper  medical  officer,  appointed  and  paid  by  the 
State  for  the  purpose,  and  should  be  required  to  pre- 
sent to  the  employer  this  officer's  certificate  of  physical 
fitness  for  labor.  No  child  ought  to  be  employed  until 
it  is  certain  that  he  will  not  suffer  irreparable  injury 
from  his  labor.  A  New  York  statute  that  took  effect 
October  I,  1912,  requires  such  a  physical  examination 
by  the  medical  officer  of  the  Board  of  Health  before 
"working  papers"  are  issued.  It  cannot  be  doubted 
that  every  State  will  soon  have  such  a  law;  it  is  the 
very  minimum  of  rational  regulation  of  child  labor. 
The  first  and  greatest  cause  of  the  increase  of  child 
labor  is  the  industrial  revolution  that  has  resulted  in 


Il8  THE  GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

the  socialization  of  labor  in  the  modern  factory  sys- 
tem. The  machine  and  the  factory  first  made  child 
labor  profitable  on  a  large  scale — immediately  profit- 
able, not  economically  and,  in  the  long  run,  profitable. 
The  opportunity  has  stimulated  greed  to  the  utmost. 
The  greed  of  parents  leads  them  to  sacrifice  the  ulti- 
mate interests  of  their  children  for  immediate  gain; 
and  this  is  true  of  any  parents  who  are  not  compelled 
by  actual  want  to  put  their  children  to  work,  yet  do  it. 
But  more  effective  as  a  cause  is  the  greed  of  capitalists, 
who,  to  make  a  profit  for  themselves,  are  willing  to  ex- 
ploit children  simply  because  their  wages  are  lowest. 
There  is  also  the  greed  of  the  children  themselves, 
anxious  to  begin  to  make  money,  and  not  intelligent 
enough  to  perceive  ultimate  consequences.  And  per- 
haps most  reprehensible  of  all  is  the  greed  of  society 
at  large,  ever  clamoring  for  cheap  goods  and  caring 
nothing  at  what  cost  cheapness  is  attained. 

Next  to  this  cause,  and  often  barely  distinguishable 
from  it,  is  the  poverty  of  the  working  class.  The  high 
cost  of  living  of  late  years  has  made  the  problem  of 
subsistence  an  acute  one  for  all  workers,  but  especially 
for  the  unskilled  or  little  skilled,  whose  wages  are  low- 
est of  all,  but  whose  need  of  food,  clothing,  and  shel- 
ter is  as  great  as  anyone's.  Many  parents  are  em- 
ployed at  wages  that  enable  them  to  make  "just  too 
much  to  die  and  not  enough  to  live."  The  average 
workingman  would  no  doubt  prefer  to  see  his  children 
growing  up  under  the  best  conditions  for  producing 
health,  intelligence,  and  character,  instead  of  compet- 
ing with  him  in  industry  and  lowering  his  wages  be- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   CHILD  119 

low  a  decent  standard  of  living.  But  the  immediate 
questions  for  him  are:  What  shall  we  eat?  and, 
Wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed?  These  questions 
cannot  be  postponed;  their  immediate  solution  is  ur- 
gently demanded ;  and  to  the  workingman  the  only  pos- 
sible solution  seems  to  be  that  his  children  shall  be- 
gin at  the  earliest  time  the  law  will  permit  (and  often 
considerably  earlier)  to  contribute  their  earnings  to 
the  family  fund.  When  the  question  of  present  hun- 
ger and  cold  is  pressing,  what  use  of  urging  on  men 
that  their  future  interests  will  be  injured  by  the  only 
conduct  that  promises  to  keep  them  alive? 

It  is,  however,  not  merely  the  ultimate,  but  the  im- 
mediate, interests  of  the  workers  that  are  threatened 
by  child  labor.  Of  this  they  are  conscious;  at  least, 
they  recognize  effects,  if  they  do  not  clearly  perceive 
causes.  The  effect  of  child  labor  is  destructive  to 
family  life.  One  of  the  most  frequently  urged  ob- 
jections to  socialism  is  that  it  would  break  up  the  home. 
Those  who  raise  that  objection  should  look  more  care- 
fully at  what  the  existing  system  has  already  done 
and  is  daily  doing  to  destroy  the  home.  Child  labor 
is  especially  disintegrating,  in  that  it  results  in  the  in- 
dependence of  the  child  before  he  is  fitted  for  it.  He 
is  earning  his  own  living  and  knows  it,  and  that  makes 
him  impatient  of  parental  discipline  and  control.  He 
has  been  compelled  to  play  a  man's  part  before  he 
became  a  man,  and  he  demands,  in  turn,  a  man's  priv- 
ileges. In  many  cases  the  children  are  the  chief  sup- 
port of  the  home ;  the  father  is  dead  or  worse,  and  the 
mother  dare  not  restrain  her  children  for  fear  of  los- 


I2O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

ing  their  earnings.  This  is  particularly  harmful  in 
the  case  of  young  girls.  To  give  a  child  independence 
before  he  is  mature  enough  to  use  it  properly  is  as 
rational  as  to  give  a  baby  a  loaded  revolver  for  a  play- 
thing. Moreover,  children  thus  deprived  of  oversight 
and  training,  even  if  they  do  not  go  wrong,  receive  no 
preparation  for  life.  When  they  marry  and  attempt 
to  establish  homes  of  their  own,  the  factory-bred  boy 
lacks  sense  of  responsibility  and  too  often  deserts  his 
family  in  a  crisis  of  its  fortunes,  while  the  factory-bred 
girl  knows  nothing  of  homekeeping  and  the  inevitable 
result  is  matrimonial  unhappiness  and  domestic  ship- 
wreck. In  every  way  the  home  is  sufferer,  and  must 
be  sufferer  so  long  as  the  present  system  continues,  and 
particularly  so  long  as  child  labor  is  permitted. 


Ill 

The  problem  of  the  child  is  not  solely  an  industrial 
problem;  it  is  even  more  an  educational  problem.  To 
prohibit  the  child  from  working  is  therefore  only  the 
first  step  toward  solution ;  quite  as  much  as  to  be  saved 
from  premature  labor,  he  needs  to  be  prepared  for  in- 
telligent and  efficient  labor  when  he  reaches  the  proper 
age.  No  one,  probably,  would  maintain  that  such  is 
now  the  case.  Among  our  social  reforms,  reform  of 
education  is  one  of  the  most  pressing. 

No  educational  reforms  are  worthy  of  serious  con- 
sideration that  are  not  based  on  study  of  real  condi- 
tions. More  than  twenty  million  children  are  attending 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD  121 

primary  schools  of  the  United  States,  the  vast  majority 
of  them  in  public  schools.  We  spend  $450,000,000  on 
these  schools,  nearly  as  much  as  for  automobiles,  a 
little  more  than  a  third  of  our  tobacco  bill,  and  not 
much  more  than  one-fifth  of  what  is  worse  than  wasted 
in  drink.  Even  so,  we  have  not  schoolhouses  adequate 
to  contain  this  great  school  population.  In  New  York 
City  alone,  over  100,000  pupils  are  attending  school 
but  half  the  time  because  of  lack  of  room.  If  the 
truant  laws  and  labor  laws  were  adequately  enforced 
hardly  a  city  in  the  Union  would  find  its  schoolroom 
adequate.  Our  parsimony  is  disgraceful.  Until  lately 
much  of  the  ancient  patriarchal  idea  survived  in  our 
laws  and  customs:  the  child  was  the  property  of  his 
father.  The  father,  therefore,  could  give  the  child 
such  an  education  as  it  pleased  him  to  give,  take  him 
out  of  school  and  put  him  to  work  at  as  early  an  age 
as  he  chose  and  keep  the  child's  wages  until  his  ma- 
jority. The  latter  is  still  his  legal  right,  but  the  other 
privileges  we  have  taken  from  him  by  laws  of  compul- 
sory education  and  truancy.  Having  assumed  the 
obligation  to  educate  the  child,  it  is  our  plain  duty  to 
fulfil  it. 

For  this  ridiculously  inadequate  expenditure  of  ours 
we  are  getting  more  than  we  deserve,  but  far  less  than 
we  need,  in  the  way  of  education.  We  were  long  ac- 
customed to  consider  ourselves  the  most  intelligent  and 
progressive  nation  in  the  world;  our  Fourth  of  July 
orators  told  us  so  every  year,  and  we  believed  them. 
But  in  1880  the  official  report  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Education  rudely  awakened  us.  Our  percentage  of  il- 


122  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

literacy  in  that  year  was  22.15,  while  that  of  England 
and  Wales  was  10.55,  Scotland  6.46,  and  Prussia  4.21. 
We  have  improved  considerably  since  then,  so  that  our 
percentage  has  been  reduced  to  7.7,  but  we  are  still 
far  behind  Germany,  considerably  behind  Scotland,  and 
probably  not  in  advance  of  England.1  In  Germany, 
where  the  whole  male  population  of  full  age  is  obliged 
to  do  military  service,  only  three  men  in  a  thousand 
are  found  to  be  illiterate  when  they  join  the  colors. 

The  whole  blame  of  illiteracy  is  obviously  not  to  be 
placed  on  the  schools.  Almost  any  American  would 
say  instantly  that  foreign  immigration  is  chiefly  re- 
sponsible for  our  large  percentage,  and  next  to  that 
the  element  of  negroes  and  Indians  in  the  census.  But 
we  must  not  be  too  complacent  in  thus  laying  the  blame 
on  the  foreigner.  The  immigrants  who  come  to  us,  if 
themselves  illiterate,  are  more  eager  to  have  their  chil- 
dren educated  than  the  older  American  stocks.  The 
census  figures,  when  analyzed,  show  a  greater  percent- 
age of  illiteracy  among  native  whites  of  native  parent- 
age than  among  native  whites  of  foreign  parentage. 
The  proportion  of  children  from  five  to  fourteen  years 
attending  school  is  greater  among  those  of  foreign 

1  There  is  a  difficulty  in  making  accurate  comparisons  because 
the  methods  of  gathering  the  facts  are  diverse.  The  test  of  il- 
literacy in  Great  Britain  is  inability  to  sign  the  marriage  regis- 
ters. In  most  of  the  Continental  countries,  where  compulsory 
military  service  obtains,  the  test  is  the  ability  of  army  recruits 
to  read  and  write.  Only  France  and  Italy,  like  the  United 
States,  make  an  educational  census  of  the  whole  population 
over  ten  years  of  age. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    CHILD  123 

parentage  and  foreign  birth  than  among  native  Ameri- 
cans of  two  or  more  generations.1 

Fact  is  worth  more  than  theory  in  education,  but 
we  must  have  a  theory.  That  something  must  be 
wrong  about  the  American  theory  seems  to  be  indicated 
by  these  facts.  It  would  perhaps  be  more  strictly  ac- 
curate to  say  that  we  have  had  and  still  have  two 
theories  of  education.  One  is,  that  education  should 
be  chiefly  cultural,  and  has  as  its  end  the  unfolding 
and  perfecting  of  the  human  spirit.  The  other  theory 
is  that  education  should  be  chiefly  practical,  and  its 
end  the  disciplining  of  human  faculties  into  a  perfect 
tool.  The  one  sort  of  education  would  fit  the  child 
to  make  a  living ;  the  other,  it  is  said,  makes  him  fit  to 
live.  One  or  other  of  these  theories  is  held  by  most 
teachers  with  so  much  of  conviction  as  to  imply  sus- 
picion of  the  other  and  often  open  hostility  to  it. 
Neither  theory  can  be  said  to  have  been  carried  out 
consistently  anywhere. 

The  reason  may  be  that  the  inherent  good  sense  of 
the  average  American  community  has  felt,  if  it  has 
not  clearly  perceived,  that  the  unflinching  carrying  out 
of  either  theory  is  undesirable.  Culture,  pursued  as  an 
exclusive  aim,  too  often  becomes  an  intellectual  drug 
habit,  which  unfits  its  devotee  to  face  life  and  see 
things  as  they  are.  There  may  be  place  in  an  aristoc- 
racy for  a  man  so  highly  cultivated  that  he  does  not 
know  how  to  earn  an  honest  dollar,  but  not  in  a  democ- 
racy. On  the  other  hand,  the  "practical"  ideal,  thor- 

1  The  illiteracy  of   native  whites,  born  of  native  parents,   is 
5.7;  of  native  whites,  born  of  foreign  parents,  1.6. 


124  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

oughly  enforced  and  measurably  realized,  would  make 
us  a  nation  of  Gradgrinds  and  altogether  eliminate 
spiritual  progress.  But  if  it  is  undesirable  to  follow 
either  ideal  exclusively,  neither  is  it  necessary  to  ar- 
range some  weak  and  ineffectual  compromise  between 
them.  They  are  not  so  much  contradictory  theories  as 
complementary.  In  our  discussions  we  are  too  prone 
to  forget  that  the  "practical"  subjects  may  be  made 
"cultural,"  while  most  of  the  subjects  supposed  to  be 
purely  "cultural"  may  be  so  taught  as  to  be  "prac- 
tical" also.  The  distinction,  when  not  merely  verbal, 
is  one  of  emphasis  and  method. 

On  one  thing  we  can  surely  all  agree,  and  in  the 
end  we  shall  be  found  to  agree:  any  subject  that  is  not 
directly  connected  with  life  has  no  proper  place  in 
primary  education.  The  high  school  and  the  university 
exist  for  the  cultural  subjects,  with  less  regard  to  their 
severe  practicality,  and  primarily  considering  what  will 
most  promote  symmetrical  development.  The  common 
school  exists  to  give  the  elementary  education  needed 
by  every  citizen,  and,  while  all  its  aims  should  be  prac- 
tical, the  cultural  element  should  not  be,  need  not  be, 
and,  in  fact,  is  not  excluded. 

If,  in  the  light  of  what  has  been  said,  we  look 
farther  into  the  conduct  of  our  public  schools,  we  shall 
probably  come  to  the  conclusion  that  their  greatest 
fault  has  thus  far  been  that  they  have  been  organized 
on  an  assumption  totally  divorced  from  reality.  It  has 
been  assumed  by  educators  that  a  single  type  of  educa- 
tion is  adequate,  that  all  children  can  and  should  have 
the  same  training ;  that  a  single  type  of  training  will  fit 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD  12$ 

them  for  callings  the  most  diverse.  Nothing  could  well 
be  more  at  variance  with  the  facts  of  life.  The  conse- 
quence of  this  assumption  has  been  that  our  public 
schools  have  been  organized  for  the  needs  of  the  well- 
to-do  and  the  rich.  They  have  provided  a  fairly  ade- 
quate training  for  children  a  large  proportion  of  whom 
develop  a  taste  for  higher  education,  and  are  of  an 
economic  grade  able  to  afford  it,  or  have  sufficient  per- 
sonal initiative  and  aggressiveness  to  secure  it  against 
all  obstacles.  But  for  such  as  do  not  desire  the  higher 
education,  or  cannot  obtain  it,  our  schools  offer  oppor- 
tunities so  vastly  inferior  that  one  may  almost  say  they 
offer  no  opportunity  at  all.  There  is,  in  other  words, 
no  adequate  provision  for  the  education  of  that  vast 
majority  of  children  who  must  earn  their  living  by  the 
labor  of  their  hands.  The  public  school  curriculum  is 
dominated  by  the  high  school,  and  the  high  school  by 
the  university.  We  have  the  anomaly  of  a  school  sys- 
tem avowedly  democratic,  but  really  aristocratic. 
While  the  democracy  "pays  the  freight"  the  freight  is 
too  often  delivered  at  the  wrong  address. 

How  serious  this  failure  of  our  schools  is  probably 
few  of  our  people  really  appreciate.  We  have  so  long 
been  accustomed  to  flatter  ourselves  that  we  have  the 
best  school  system  in  the  world  that  we  listen  with  a 
certain  impatience  to  anybody  who  questions  the  ac- 
curacy of  this  notion,  and  so  the  facts  filter  but  slowly 
into  our  minds  through  this  layer  of  conceit.  An  ex- 
amination of  schools  in  fifty-two  cities,  representing 
with  fairness  the  entire  United  States,  shows  that  the 
majority  of  the  children  who  enter  complete  only  the 


126  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

fifth  grade;  only  half  of  those  entering  are  carried  to 
the  final  elementary  grade  (eighth),  and  one  in  ten  to 
the  final  year  of  the  high  school.  Or,  to  put  it  in  other 
figures  that  may  be  even  more  impressive:  of  1,000 
children  of  school  age,  only  120  graduate  from  the 
grammar  school  and  six  from  the  high  school. 

Why  do  so  many  children  begin  to  get  an  education 
and  fall  by  the  way?  Investigation  shows  that  rela- 
tively few  children  leave  school  because  of  failure  in 
studies,  at  least  as  the  direct  cause.  The  majority 
leave  in  order  to  go  to  work.  Poor  health  or  sickness 
in  the  family  is  assigned  as  a  reason  by  a  large  num- 
ber, some  of  whom  may  really  have  left  because  of 
failure.  An  intensive  study  of  300  pupils  showed  that 
not  over  twenty  per  cent,  left  school  at  the  age  of  four- 
teen because  of  real  economic  pressure.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  children  and 
three-fourths  of  the  parents  did  not  believe  that  it  was 
worth  while  to  spend  more  time  in  school.  Their  con- 
viction was  that  the  school  was  teaching  them  nothing 
of  real  value  to  them;  and  the  probability  is  that  they 
were  right.  But  a  school  system  that,  by  its  repressive 
discipline  and  its  unpractical  curriculum,  contrives  to 
make  children  hate  school  rather  than  love  it,  to  make 
children  glad  of  any  excuse  to  leave  and  go  to  work, 
instead  of  imparting  a  thirst  for  further  learning,  must 
so  far  be  reckoned  a  failure,  must  it  not?  A  system 
that  miserably  fails  to  accomplish  its  avowed  purposes 
is  not  an  object  to  which  we  can  point  with  pride,  but 
something  of  which  we  ought  to  be  bitterly  ashamed. 

No  public  school  system  can  be  called  even  tolerably 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD  127 

satisfactory  so  long  as  it  does  not  carry  the  majority 
of  entering  children  through  at  least  the  eight  elemen- 
tary grades.  With  better  teaching  this  might  be  done 
even  now,  for  the  majority  of  children  spend  sufficient 
time  in  school  to  complete  the  eight  grades.  The 
schools  are  not  efficient  enough  to  get  the  best  results 
possible  in  the  time  now  available.  Consequently  the 
defects  of  the  schools  that  call  for  immediate  remedy 
are  those  known  as  retardation  and  repeating :  the  fail- 
ure of  so  large  a  proportion  of  pupils  to  obtain  promo- 
tion at  the  end  of  the  year,  and  their  consequent  obli- 
gation to  take  the  work  of  a  grade  a  second  and  even 
a  third  time.  It  is  estimated  that  $27,000,000  is  spent 
annually  in  the  instruction  of  "repeaters."  Or,  in 
other  figures,  one-fifth  of  the  school  money  is  devoted 
to  educating  one-twentieth  of  the  children — which,  to 
say  the  least  of  it,  is  bad  business. 

The  causes  of  retardation  are  complex,  including 
factors  so  diverse  as  truancy,  ill-health,  dulness,  and 
laziness.  The  chief  cause,  however,  is  none  of  these, 
but  curriculum  and  instruction  adapted,  not  to  the  slow 
child,  or  even  to  the  average  child,  but  to  the  unusually 
bright  child ;  and  next  to  this  unquestionably  comes  ir- 
regularity of  attendance.  When  three-fourths  of  the 
children  are  present  less  than  three-fourths  of  the 
school  year,  a  school  cannot  reasonably  be  expected  to 
produce  satisfactory  results.  Conceding  this  difficulty 
to  be  beyond  the  scope  of  school  authority,  and  to  be 
in  the  sphere  of  parents  and  the  law,  it  remains  true 
that  the  school  can  and  must  do  much  to  prevent  re- 
tardation. 


128  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

In  days  to  come  we  shall  look  back  with  amazement 
on  the  whole  present  machinery  of  grades,  examina- 
tions, marks,  and  promotions,  and  wonder  how  it  ever 
came  to  be  called  an  educational  system.  We  shall 
think  it  the  strangest  thing  that  children  could  ever 
have  been  trained  according  to  the  absurd  ideal  of 
"making  marks."  We  shall  wonder  why  the  best  pupil 
was  supposed  to  be  he  who  most  nearly  approximated 
the  intelligence  of  a  parrot.  We  shall  be  unable  to 
understand  why  schools  did  not  train  pupils  for  power, 
and  make  the  test  of  their  efficiency  not  the  ability  to 
remember,  but  the  ability  to  think  and  to  do  things 
worth  doing.  At  present  the  best  we  can  hope  is  the 
abatement  of  some  of  the  rigors  of  the  system. 

Schools  have  already  found  advantage  in  making 
promotions  oftener  than  once  or  twice  a  year;  term 
promotions,  at  least,  should  become  the  rule.  The  fre- 
quent reclassification  of  pupils  encourages  the  bright 
and  does  not  discourage  the  dull,  by  trying  to  force  a 
pace  too  rapid  for  them.  Promotion  of  qualified  in- 
dividuals, rather  than  of  whole  classes,  promotion  by 
subjects  rather  than  by  grades,  would  solve  a  large  part 
of  the  problem. 

Combined  with  this  method  many  schools  have 
found  great  advantage  in  giving  more  attention  to  in- 
dividual instruction,  special  attention  to  the  dull  and 
slow.  This  has  been  found  possible  without  increasing 
the  teaching  force,  but  if  it  necessitates  smaller  classes 
and  more  teachers,  let  them  be  employed.  The  effi- 
ciency of  the  schools  is  the  first  thing  to  be  considered ; 
expense  is  decidedly  a  secondary  consideration.  The 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD  I2Q 

one  thing  in  their  public  expenditure  of  which  Ameri- 
cans never  complain  is  the  amount  spent  on  schools — 
unless  it  may  be  an  occasional  grumble,  for  which  there 
is  only  too  good  ground,  that  they  get  so  little  for  their 
money. 

The  true  theory  and  practice  of  education  we  owe 
to  Froebel  (who,  of  course,  built  on  the  labors  of  his 
predecessors,  particularly  Komenius,  Rousseau,  and 
Pestalozzi),  and  he  merely  applied  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
to  the  school.  The  whole  idea  of  the  Gospel  is  freedom 
from  the  bondage  of  law  and  enjoyment  of  the  liberty 
of  grace.  A  Christian  life  is  the  free  and  spontaneous 
doing  of  the  will  of  God,  not  because  God  drives  us 
with  a  whip  of  obligation  whose  lash  is  the  fear  of  hell. 
The  Gospel  ideal  is  nature  corrected  and  directed  by 
grace.  Whether  Froebel  understood  this  ideal  or  no, 
consciously  or  unconsciously  he  applied  the  principle  to 
education.  He  threw  aside  the  notion  that  it  is  good 
discipline  for  a  child  to  be  forced,  or  to  force  himself, 
to  perform  distasteful  mental  tasks — which  is  nothing 
less  than  our  old  foe,  asceticism,  under  the  new  face 
of  education.  It  is  a  notion  wholly  pagan,  not  Chris- 
tian. Froebel  saw  that  a  child's  mind  and  a  child's 
body  should  be  developed  through  pleasure,  not 
through  pain,  by  being  trained  to  do  delightful  things, 
not  things  repulsive.  Hence  the  kindergarten,  with  its 
fundamental  principle  that  all  work  should  be  made 
play. 

But  as  the  child  develops  the  reverse  is  equally  true : 
all  his  play  should  become  work.  That  is  to  say,  the 
pleasurable  employment  of  faculties  should  no  longer 


I3O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

be  an  end  sufficient  in  itself,  but  become  a  means  of 
accomplishing  useful  things.  Yet  the  distinction  be- 
tween play  and  work  should  never  become  entirely 
clear  to  a  normal  man  or  woman.  Mark  Twain  hit 
the  fundamental  philosophy  of  social  activity,  when 
in  "Tom  Sawyer"  he  defined  play  as  work  you  don't 
have  to  do.  The  difference  between  play  and  work  is 
not  the  amount  of  physical  exertion  respectively  in- 
volved— men  play  themselves  to  an  exhaustion  as  utter 
as  is  ever  produced  by  work — but  the  sense  of  obliga- 
tion to  do.  Take  away  that  burdensome  sense,  some- 
how make  all  work  inviting,  and  it  becomes  play.  The 
greatest  of  all  social  problems  lies  just  there :  how  to 
annihilate  work.  The  school  can  do  this  now ;  society 
may  do  it  by-and-by. 

Dr.  Montessori  has  made  the  first  real  advance  in 
education  since  Froebel.  Since  all  our  knowledge  is 
obtained  through  the  senses,  it  would  appear  obvious 
that  education  ought  to  begin  with  the  training  of  the 
senses  and  proceed  to  the  training  of  the  mind.  But, 
instead  of  doing  this  obvious  thing,  education  has  for 
several  thousand  years  been  devoted  to  training  the 
mind,  leaving  the  senses  to  be  trained  by  the  experi- 
ences of  life  in  any  chance  way.  And,  even  as  to  train- 
ing the  mind,  attention  has  been  directed  mainly  to 
cultivating  the  one  faculty  of  memory,  with  little  or  no 
attention  to  apperception,  reasoning,  imagination.  Ed- 
ucators have  inexplicably  ignored  the  fact  that  nobody 
has  ever  seen  a  mind  apart  from  a  body.  The  funda- 
mental fact  of  pedagogy  is  that  the  mind  can  be 
reached  and  developed  only  through  the  body. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD 

The  value  of  the  Montessori  method  is  that  it  begins 
with  the  training  of  the  senses,  teaching  the  hands  of 
the  child  and  through  these  the  mind.  She  is  applying 
to  normal  children  the  methods  devised  and  found 
effective  in  the  case  of  the  abnormal  and  defective. 
She  is  availing  herself  of  the  newer  psychological 
knowledge  to  modernize  the  methods  of  Froebel. 
With  him  she  recognizes  the  principle  of  free  develop- 
ment; no  constraint  is  put  on  the  child  to  learn  what 
the  teacher  thinks  it  best  for  him  to  know,  but  his  own 
faculties  are  given  free  course.  The  play  instinct  is 
seized  upon  and  utilized  as  much  as  possible,  and  edu- 
cation is  made  a  process  of  pleasurable  exercise  of  his 
faculties  by  the  child  according  to  his  own  impulses. 
No  wonder  the  progress  made  under  this  method  aston- 
ishes all  beholders  by  its  rapidity  and  solidity.  No 
wonder  that  even  "weak-minded"  children  respond 
readily  to  it,  for  these  have  senses  as  capable  of  train- 
ing as  the  strong-minded.  It  is  the  first  rational,  scien- 
tific and  really  practical  system  of  education  ever  de- 
vised, and  it  is  all  these  because  it  follows  the  method 
of  nature. 

Yet  even  Dr.  Montessori  has  not  given  us  the  last 
word.  Educators  have  learned,  albeit  slowly  and  un- 
willingly, that  whatever  the  child  is  taught  must  be 
made  to  interest  the  child ;  but  they  still  shy  at  the  con- 
verse principle  that  whatever  interests  the  child  must 
be  taught.  But  the  two  principles  must  go  together  if 
we  are  to  have  a  wholly  rational  system  of  education, 
and  even  Montessori  has  only  arrived  at  the  first — re- 


132  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

discovered  what  Froebel  and  others  had  taught  before 
her,  and  that  Froebel  at  least  had  embodied  in  a  work- 
able system. 

It  is  easy,  much  too  easy,  to  over-stress  the  objec- 
tion to  our  schools  that  they  are  not  "practical."  They 
must  not  be  made  too  practical.  Industry  has  as  its 
aim  production,  and  insistently  demands  an  education 
that  will  make  school  graduates  better  producers.  Edu- 
cation must  aim  at  the  unfolding  of  human  powers,  not 
for  production  solely,  but  for  life,  with  due  regard  to 
the  fact  that  people  must  earn  a  living,  but  not  forget- 
ful that  "the  life  is  more  than  the  meat."  One  kind  of 
training  is  in  the  sphere  of  the  useful,  the  other  of  the 
ideal.  But,  again  let  it  be  said,  this  does  not  imply  in- 
compatibility, still  less  hostility,  between  them.  Use- 
ful activities  may  be  modified  if  not  directed  by  the 
ideal,  and  the  ideal  may  keep  in  view  the  practical  as 
at  least  one  of  its  ends. 


IV 


The  years  devoted  to  the  training  of  the  child  are 
all  too  short,  as  well  as  ineffective.  The  compulsory 
school  age  should  be  raised  to  sixteen  and  all  labor 
should  be  forbidden  before  that  age.  The  primary 
schools  should  be  so  improved  that  the  average  child 
will  graduate  from  them  at  twelve.  For  the  interven- 
ing four  years  a  new  system  of  training  should  be 
devised,  or  a  great  expansion  and  improvement  of  one 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD  133 

already  in  partial  operation,  and  made  so  attractive  and 
helpful  that,  instead  of  one  in  a  hundred  graduating 
from  our  secondary  schools,  as  now,  75  per  cent,  or 
more  should  be  graduates.  This  is  not  too  high  an 
aim  and  is  by  no  means  an  impossible  result. 

As  a  preparation  for  this  secondary  instruction, 
manual  training  should  be  introduced  and  made  ef- 
fective in  all  primary  schools  and  continued  through 
all  the  grades.  It  should  be  genuine  manual  training, 
a  continuation  of  the  Montessori  principle  through  the 
later  years  of  instruction,  adjusted  to  the  growing  intel- 
ligence and  information  of  the  child.  Genuine  manual 
training,  one  says  emphatically,  something  not  synony- 
mous with  industrial  training,  indeed  quite  different. 
Real  manual  training  is  part  of  education;  industrial 
training  is  a  device  of  business.  The  value  of  manual 
training  in  the  primary  school  is  not  practical  but  cul- 
tural. The  use  of  the  hands  is  an  indispensable  part 
of  development  of  the  mind,  as  the  new  psychology 
has  taught  us.  It  enlarges  the  child's  material  for 
thinking  and  trains  him  in  its  use ;  that  is,  in  more  ac- 
curate thinking.  Education  without  manual  training 
imparts  words  and  ideas,  great  things,  priceless  things 
indeed,  but  of  no  use  until  brought  to  the  test  of  reality. 
Until  his  world  of  thought  is  made  to  conform  to  the 
world  of  fact  a  child  wanders  in  a  maze  of  dreams. 
One  of  the  worst  features  of  our  education  at  present 
is  that  the  child  is  taught  in  school  a  theory  of  life 
that  all  his  experience  of  home  and  street  contradicts, 
and  presently,  when  he  enters  shop  or  store,  it  is 


134  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

shattered  to  bits,  and  there  is  no  Omar  to  teach  him 
to  remold  it  nearer  to  the  heart's  desire.1 

Because  of  its  cultural  value  manual  training  should 
be  given  to  every  child,  without  regard  to  social  stand- 
ing or  probable  calling.  A  boy  should  learn  to  use 
ordinary  tools,  not  because  he  is  to  be  a  carpenter  or 
a  plumber,  but  because  he  will  very  likely  be  a  lawyer, 
and  a  better  lawyer  for  such  training.  No  man  is  edu- 
cated until  he  can  do  as  well  as  know.  Girls  should  be 
taught  as  well  as  boys,  but  perhaps  in  a  different  way. 
A  chief  value  of  manual  training  is  its  effect  in  vitaliz- 
ing all  the  other  school  w.ork ;  it  puts  new  meaning  into 
arithmetic,  for  example,  for  a  child  to  discover  its  use 
in  measuring  and  calculating  his  work.  A  psycholo- 
gist would  predict  this;  the  experience  of  the  class- 
room proves  it.  Manual  training  interests  children 
who  are  not  interested  in  routine  school  work,  and 
causes  the  teacher  to  revise  hasty  judgments  of  the 
intelligence  and  capacity  of  pupils  that  have  been 
founded  on  bookwork  only. 

That  this  is  the  right  way  in  education  has  been 
discovered  by  the  negro  race  before  the  white.  As 
teachers  we  should  all  take  off  our  hats  to  Booker  Wash- 
ington. There  was  not  a  white  man  in  America  who 
had  the  sense  to  establish  Tuskeegee  Institute.  When, 

1  This  is  recognized  by  some  of  our  foremost  educators.  Dr. 
James  Russell,  head  of  the  Teachers'  College  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, is  reported  in  a  public  address  to  have  said:  "The 
greatest  peril  of  our  education  to-day  is  that  it  promises  an 
open  door  to  every  boy  and  girl  up  to  the  age  of  fourteen,  and 
then  turns  them  ruthlessly  into  the  world  to  find  most  doors 
not  only  closed  but  locked  against  them." 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD  135 

after  the  civil  war,  the  white  race  wished  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  uplift  of  the  negroes,  we  established  col- 
leges in  which  they  were  instructed  in  Latin,  Greek, 
and  higher  mathematics;  and  theological  schools  in 
which  they  were  given  courses  in  Hebrew,  Greek  exe- 
gesis, Church  history,  and  systematic  theology.  That 
was  the  measure  of  our  sense :  a  determination  that 
the  negro  should  have  just  as  good  instruction,  just  as 
lofty  educational  ideals,  as  the  white.  But  Mr.  Wash- 
ington saw  that  his  race  must  be  taught  to  make  a  liv- 
ing, as  the  indispensable  foundation  for  making  a  life 
— that  economic  independence  was  the  way  of  salva- 
tion for  the  negro.  And  so  he  established  Tuskeegee, 
where  negro  boys  and  girls  are  given  a  plain  English 
education  without  frills,  and  are  at  the  same  time 
taught  how  to  earn  an  honest  and  comfortable  liveli- 
hood. In  the  process  they  are  given  all  the  culture  that 
as  individuals  they  are  capable  of  absorbing,  all  that  in 
the  present  economic  conditions  of  their  race  is  of 
value. 

In  secondary  schools,  attention  may  be  properly 
given  to  the  probable  future  of  pupils.  The  present 
high  school  is  well  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  class 
that  attend  it.  But  alongside  of  the  present  high 
schools,  which  are  too  literary  and  exclusively  cultural 
for  the  needs  of  the  majority,  should  be  established 
schools  of  equal  grade  of  the  industrial  and  technical 
kind,  frankly  devoted  to  the  preparation  of  children 
for  various  forms  of  manual  labor,  and  others  to  pre- 
pare for  "business,"  the  various  clerical  and  semi-pro- 
fessional callings.  Excellent  private  schools  make  part 


136  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

of  this  provision  now,  and  graduate  annually  thou- 
sands of  students;  but  all  forms  of  secondary  instruc- 
tion should  be  a  public  charge,  not  one  kind  merely. 
Every  argument  that  can  be  advanced  for  the  high 
school  applies  with  equal  force  to  the  other  classes  of 
secondary  schools.  And  besides  there  is  this  further 
argument,  surely  not  lacking  in  force :  they  are  more 
needed. 

For  the  present,  until  public  opinion  will  not  merely 
support  but  compel  the  raising  of  the  school  age  to 
sixteen  and  the  provision  of  such  secondary  schools  as 
have  been  indicated,  much  might  be  done  for  those 
compelled  to  go  to  work  at  fourteen  by  the  establish- 
ment of  continuation  schools,  where  they  may  acquire 
the  theory  of  what  they  learn  in  practice  in  the  shop, 
so  as  not  to  be  all  their  lives  at  the  mercy  of  rule  o' 
thumb.  Employees  should  be  taught  how  much  it  is 
to  their  interest  to  gain  such  education,  because  it 
will  promote  their  efficiency  and  add  to  their  earnings. 
Employers  should  be  taught  how  much  it  is  to  their 
interest  to  have  their  workmen  made  more  intelligent 
and  efficient,  so  that  the  cooperation  of  the  employing 
class  may  be  secured  for  these  schools.  A  few  schools 
of  this  class  have  already  been  established,  and  em- 
ployers have  sent  their  apprentices  with  continued  pay 
for  half  a  day  or  a  day  a  week.  The  results  have 
been  so  excellent  that,  while  at  first  employers  merely 
permitted  attendance  on  the  part  of  their  apprentices, 
they  now  require  attendance.  But  for  those  who  can 
remain  in  school  until  sixteen  or  after,  industrial  and 
technical  high  schools,  of  grade  fully  equal  to  the  pres- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   CHILD  137 

ent  high  schools,  ought  to  be  provided  without  delay. 
As  a  temporary  provision,  courses  might  be  established 
in  the  present  high  schools  in  mathematics,  physics, 
chemistry,  and  drawing,  as  they  apply  to  trades  and 
industries  of  our  day. 

All  this  may  seem  visionary  to  those  who  encounter 
these  ideas  for  the  first  time.  Such  incredulous  per- 
sons will  perhaps  be  astonished  to  hear  that  Germany 
has  had  this  method  in  practical  operation  for  a  gen- 
eration. There  are  eleven  fully  equipped  technical 
high  schools,  with  a  teaching  staff  of  nearly  eight  hun- 
dred, and  16,570  students,  of  whom  2,000  are  women. 
There  are  four  agricultural  high  schools,  besides 
agricultural  institutes  at  eight  universities,  and  67 
other  agricultural  schools  of  lower  grade,  not  to  men- 
tion 195  similar  schools  that  are  maintained  only  in 
the  winter.  Other  technical  schools  are :  15  schools  of 
mining;  15  of  architecture  and  building;  5  academies 
of  forestry;  27  schools  of  art  and  art  industry;  429 
commercial  schools;  100  schools  of  textile  manufac- 
tures; 12  for  special  metal  industries;  12  for  wood 
working ;  four  for  ceramics ;  1 1  for  naval  architecture 
and  engineering;  19  for  navigation;  and  n  music 
schools.1 

The  success  of  the  system  goes  far  to  explain  the 
great  strides  forward  that  have  placed  Germany  at  the 
head  of  the  industrial  nations  of  the  world.  The  boy 
or  girl  in  the  primary  schools  is  assisted  by  the  teacher 
to  make  choice  of  occupations  for  which  they  are  best 

1  These  facts  are  given  on  the  authority  of  the  "Statesman's 
Year-Book." 


138  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

fitted,  and  psychology  is  invoked  to  give  aid  in  this 
matter.  All  this  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  Ameri- 
can boy's  headlong  fashion  of  going  to  work,  taking 
the  first  job  he  can  get,  and  trying  one  thing  after 
another  until,  if  he  has  sufficient  good  luck,  he  finally 
discovers  something  for  which  he  is  not  too  unfitted 
to  get  along  after  a  sort.  The  German  teacher  then 
makes  it  his  business  to  see  that  the  pupils  get  the 
supplementary  training  that  will  best  fit  them  for  the 
work  chosen.  Employers  are  compelled  by  law  to 
excuse  their  child  workers  for  instruction  without  loss 
of  pay,  and  also  to  pay  the  tuition  fees.  These,  how- 
ever, are  said  to  be  merely  nominal,  the  chief  expense 
of  the  schools  being  borne  by  the  municipality  and  the 
State.  The  result  of  a  generation's  working  of  the 
system  is  that  practically  all  the  manual  laborers  of 
Germany,  excluding  agriculture,  are  skilled  workmen, 
and  the  rough  work  to  which  unskilled  labor  is  ade- 
quate is  now  done  almost  wholly  by  foreigners. 


After  all,  is  not  the  greatest  defect  of  our  school 
system  that  it  still  makes  no  adequate  provision,  in 
most  cases  no  provision  whatever,  for  the  physical  cul- 
ture of  the  child?  Obviously,  this  is  quite  as  impor- 
tant as  his  mental  culture,  but  educational  theory  has 
hitherto  been  that  care  of  the  child's  health  and  physi- 
cal development  belongs  to  the  parent  and  the  home, 
not  to  the  school.  And  perhaps  an  ideal  division  of 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE    CHILD  139 

responsibility  and  work  would  be  that.  But  the  school 
must  face  facts,  the  school  must  get  results;  and  its 
methods  must  be  adapted  to  existing  fact  and  desired 
result.  It  is  incontrovertible  fact  that  the  parent  and 
the  home  do  not  care  adequately  for  the  physical  de- 
velopment and  health  of  the  child.  It  is  equally  in- 
controvertible that  a  child  in  poor  health,  or  with  a 
body  imperfectly  developed,  cannot  do  his  school  work 
properly.  Systematic  medical  inspection  and  syste- 
matic physical  training  are,  therefore,  an  indispensable 
part  of  a  school  system.  For  a  few  children  of  the 
well-to-do  these  may  be  superfluous  things,  but  for  the 
great  majority  of  school  children,  even  from  the  well- 
to-do  classes,  it  is  the  condition  of  normal  proficiency 
in  study. 

A  modern  school  might  as  rationally  be  left  with- 
out desks,  text-books,  and  blackboards  as  without 
gymnastic  apparatus  and  a  playground.  And  a  play- 
ground is  not  a  mere  vacant  lot  to  run  about  in,  but 
should  have  the  fittings  of  an  athletic  field.  Games 
and  exercises  should  be  taught  as  carefully  as  the  other 
school  subjects,  and  proficiency  here  should  count  for 
as  much  as  proficiency  in  class.  The  calisthenics  intro- 
duced into  the  schools  a  generation  ago  were  an  excel- 
lent thing  of  their  kind,  a  welcome  relief  to  muscles 
and  nerves  tired  by  ordinary  school  tasks,  but  they  are 
quite  useless  for  physical  culture.  Manual  training 
would,  of  course,  do  something  for  the  bodily  develop- 
ment of  pupils,  but  the  chief  reliance  must  be  on  the 
gymnasium  and  the  playground,  where  regular  work 
is  done  under  a  competent  instructor.  Such  work 


I4O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

would  be  directed  to  the  removal  of  physical  defects 
and  the  securing  of  a  symmetrical  physical  growth. 
The  remarkable  results  obtained  in  many  colleges  by 
compulsory  physical  exercise  under  competent  direc- 
tion both  shows  the  practicability  of  the  proposal  as 
applied  to  the  public  schools  and  warrants  the  hope  of 
great  improvement  in  national  physique  and  national 
health.  Let  the  advocates  of  the  new  and  much  talked 
of  eugenics  direct  their  efforts  to  this  point  and  they 
will  be  able  to  free  their  movement  from  some  of  its 
present  absurdities.  If  for  a  generation  we  should 
bestow  on  the  bodies  of  our  children  half  the  atten- 
tion that  we  now  give  to  their  minds,  we  should  be- 
come the  admiration  of  the  world. 

Investigation  of  our  schools  shows  that  no  small 
part  of  the  failure  of  the  pupils  to  do  their  work  prop- 
erly is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  are  not  sufficiently 
nourished.  It  is  impossible  for  a  growing  child  to 
study  well  on  little  breakfast  and  less  luncheon.  It 
is  true  that  the  children  of  European  immigrants  are 
generally  accustomed  to  a  light  breakfast;  but  that 
should  be  followed  by  a  hearty  luncheon,  and  this  is 
seldom  the  case.  Their  parents  are  often  at  work,  and, 
in  lieu  of  a  home  meal,  five  cents  or  less  is  given  them 
to  buy  luncheon,  which  as  often  as  not  is  spent  for 
candy  instead  of  more  nourishing  food.  To  provide 
a  good  midday  meal  for  the  children,  that  will  enable 
them  to  do  their  work  without  physical  exhaustion,  has 
already  been  found  essential  in  certain  quarters  of 
some  cities,  and  will  ere  long  be  regarded  as  much  a 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    CHILD  14! 

matter  of  course  as  any  other  kind  of  school  equip- 
ment.1 

These  ideas  about  physical  culture  in  the  schools  will 
appear  to  many  people  mere  fads,  so  far  removed 
from  the  sphere  of  the  practical  as  to  be  worthy  of  no 
serious  consideration.  Let  such  ponder  a  few  plain 
facts.  A  few  years  ago  forty  children  in  a  Cleveland 
school  were  organized  into  a  special  class  to  try  the 
effects  of  mouth-hygiene.  They  were  first  submitted 
to  various  mental  tests;  then  their  teeth  were  put  in 
order  by  a  dentist,  and  each  was  provided  with  a  tooth- 
brush and  pledged  to  use  it  regularly.  Twenty-seven 
of  them  had  persistence  enough  to  maintain  the  ex- 
periment for  a  year,  at  the  end  of  which  time  the  men- 
tal tests  were  repeated,  and  showed  a  gain  of  99.8  per 
cent.  When  we  consider  that  75  per  cent,  of  our 
school  children  have  physical  defects  at  least  as  serious 
as  bad  teeth,  and  what  might  be  accomplished  by  syste- 
matic medical  inspection  and  physical  culture  in  over- 
coming these  defects,  how  can  anybody  question  the 
importance  of  this  matter? 

As  regards  the  matter  of  practicability,  an  experi- 
ment in  four  of  the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia  is 
decisive.  Mr.  Charles  Keen  Taylor,  a  former  instruc- 
tor in  psychology  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
organized  a  club  for  boys  by  the  simple  process  of 
showing  schoolboys  photographs  of  boys  of  their  own 
age  who  were  well  developed.  All  were  naturally 

1  England  passed  a  statute  known  as  a  Provision  of  Meals 
Act,  in  1906,  and  a  Medical  Inspection  Act  in  1907.  "Report  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1912,"  vol.  I,  p.  495. 


142  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

eager  to  attain  a  like  development.  Each  boy  was 
given  a  physical  examination;  if  his  physique  was  first- 
class  and  his  class  standing  good  he  was  given  a  first- 
class  button;  fairly  good  physique  and  standing  en- 
titled him  to  a  second-class  button ;  while  any  boy  who 
joined  the  club  was  entitled  to  a  third-class  button. 
Some  special  privileges  were  given  to  all  members  of 
the  league,  but  every  boy  wanted  to  get  into  the  first 
class  as  quickly  as  possible.  They  were  given  advice 
as  to  the  exercises  to  take  to  remedy  their  defects,  and, 
as  promotion  depended  on  their  success,  they  did  as 
they  were  told.  A  regular  diet  was  advised  as  requi- 
site to  the  best  physical  progress,  and  an  early  bedtime, 
and  they  were  warned  that  smoking  was  especially 
detrimental. 

Tests  at  the  end  of  a  year  showed  surprising  prog- 
ress. Over  80  per  cent,  of  the  boys  who  had  smoked 
before  entering  the  club  had  stopped,  and  the  physical 
progress  of  all  was  highly  gratifying.  Inasmuch  as 
the  experiment  has  been  conducted  at  practically  no 
cost,  without  apparatus  or  playgrounds,  the  fact  that 
the  weaklings  of  this  club  were  started  in  a  single  year 
on  the  road  to  strength,  while  the  more  fit  developed  a 
high  degree  of  muscular  power  and  endurance,  makes 
this  one  of  the  most  effective  object  lessons  of  the 
value  and  practicability  of  physical  culture  for  school 
children. 


But  it  will  be  of  no  avail  to  improve  the  schools  un- 
less the  children  are  free  to  take  advantage  of  what 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   CHILD  143 

they  offer.  The  ignorance  and  greed  of  parents,  and 
the  intelligence  and  greed  of  employers,  must  not  be 
permitted  to  continue  the  exploitation  of  the  child. 
The  root  of  the  chief  evils  that  constitute  the  prob- 
lem of  the  child  is  Profit.  The  moment  it  ceases  to  be 
profitable  to  exploit  the  child  he  will  be  given  a  fair 
chance  to  enjoy  his  childhood.  There  is  a  very  simple 
expedient,  that  has  already  been  tried  in  a  small  way, 
which  will  dispose  of  the  worst  of  these  evils  at  a 
blow  and  with  an  ease  all  but  ridiculous.  A  Federal 
statute  forbidding  the  shipping  into  any  other  State  of 
any  goods  manufactured  by  the  labor  of  children  un- 
der fourteen  or  sixteen  years  would  be  immediately 
effective.  Few  factories  find  profit  in  manufacturing 
goods  to  be  sold  within  the  State  where  they  are  made 
— that  is  too  small  a  market  in  these  days.  The  United 
States  Supreme  Court  has  passed  several  times  on  the 
constitutionality  of  this  principle  in  legislation,  de- 
claring that  Congress  has  the  sole  right  to  regulate 
interstate  commerce,  and  any  regulations  it  makes  are 
within  its  discretion  and  not  a  matter  for  judicial  in- 
terference. 

But  child  exploitation  in  factories  is  not  the  only 
way  in  which  the  welfare  of  the  child  is  menaced  and 
his  rights  abridged.  In  domestic,  agricultural,  and 
street  labor  there  are  abuses  quite  as  great  as  in  fac- 
tories, and  thus  far  there  has  been  little  done  to  regu- 
late them.  The  need  of  regulation  is  shown  by  the 
census  statistics,  which  make  it  clear  that  75  per  cent, 
of  child  workers  fall  into  these  classes,  while  only  16 
per  cent,  are  in  factories.  Children  of  three  and  four 


144  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

years  work  by  the  side  of  their  mothers  in  hundreds 
of  tenements;  and  children  of  school  age  are  kept 
from  school  and  employed  in  tasks  beyond  their 
strength  on  thousands  of  farms.  The  "bound"  boy 
or  girl,  taken  from  some  charitable  institution  or  from 
the  poorhouse,  and  often  treated  with  less  considera- 
tion than  the  dumb  animals,  is  a  feature  of  many  a 
farm.  These  evils  are  more  delicate  to  deal  with  and 
more  difficult  to  cure  than  the  factory,  where  massing 
of  workers  together,  if  it  creates  some  special  difficul- 
ties, at  least  makes  the  problem  of  control  simpler. 
No  suggestion  that  seems  sufficiently  practicable  has 
yet  been  made  for  effectually  dealing  with  domestic 
and  agricultural  child  labor. 

Child  labor  in  the  streets  is  in  many  respects  a  worse 
evil  than  labor  in  factories.  It  is  hardly  less  detri- 
mental to  health,  and  far  more  detrimental  to  morals. 
It  is  the  more  difficult  to  deal  with,  because  many  of 
the  workers  are  not  employees,  but  work  directly  for 
themselves  or  their  families.  This  is  the  case  with 
newsboys  and,  until  lately,  was  the  case  with  boot- 
blacks.1 Street  labor  trains  these  children  in  all  forms 
of  mendicancy,  dishonesty,  and  vice.  Many  of  them 
are  not  so  much  impelled  by  need  as  allured  by  the  lib- 
erty and  opportunity  for  self-indulgence  made  possible 
through  their  gains.  The  economical  and  ethical  de- 

1  Bootblacking  is  ceasing  to  be  a  street  industry,  but  is  be- 
coming something  even  worse  through  the  infamous  padrone 
system.  Boys  (mostly  Greeks)  are  imported  for  this  work, 
and  others  (mostly  Italians)  are  obtained  from  the  slum  dis- 
tricts and  exploited  by  these  padrones.  In  all  our  large  cities 
this  is  now  one  of  the  worst  forms  of  child  labor. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   CHILD  145 

fects  of  this  form  of  child  labor  are  almost  innumer- 
able, and  of  the  most  serious  nature.  Street  labor 
breeds  distaste  for  any  regular  work,  because  all  street 
occupations  are  casual  and  occasional,  most  of  them 
therefore  uncertain  and  all  without  oversight  or  disci- 
pline. No  training  could  be  worse  for  children  at 
their  most  susceptible  and  plastic  age.  Street  occupa- 
tions lead  nowhither.  The  boy  grows  into  the  man 
and  finds  no  opening  into  a  man's  career;  he  has,  in 
fact,  ceased  to  be  a  boy  without  becoming  a  man. 

Owing  to  its  occasional  character,  street  labor  in- 
volves excessive  fatigue  at  times,  while  it  offers  exces- 
sive leisure  at  others;  these  are  conditions  favorable 
to  dissipation  and  immorality  of  many  kinds.  It  com- 
pels exposure  to  bad  weather  and  so  favors  resort 
to  stimulants.  It  compels  familiarity  with  vice  of 
every  kind  at  an  age  when  ignorance  is  both  bliss  and 
safety.  A  natural  result  is  that  a  large  proportion 
of  street  workers  become  vicious  and  are  afflicted  with 
venereal  diseases,  thus  becoming  centers  of  infection 
to  the  whole  community.  Many  become  recruits  of 
the  habitual  criminal  class,  and  in  later  years  fill  our 
jails  and  prisons,  not  to  say  our  asylums  and  hos- 
pitals.1 If  there  were  no  ethical  objections  to  child 
labor  in  the  streets  the  economic  cost  is  too  high. 

It  is  objected  that  the  work  done  by  children  in  the 
streets  if  done  by  adults  would  prove  too  costly — that 
child  labor  is  an  economic  necessity.  Experience 

*As  to  what  is  now  attempted  for  the  cure  of  juvenile  delin- 
quency, there  is  no  better  source  of  information  than  the  group 
of  reports  in  the  number  of  the  "Survey"  for  February  5,  1910. 


146  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

shows,  however,  that  newspapers  can  be  profitably  dis- 
tributed by  adults,  especially  by  utilizing  the  services 
of  old  men  and  cripples.  To  do  this  on  a  larger  scale 
would  be  to  "kill  two  birds  with  one  stone,"  not  only 
eliminating  the  objectionable  child  labor,  but  furnish- 
ing profitable  employment  for  a  needy  class.  Experi- 
ence has  also  shown  that  men  can  be  profitably  em- 
ployed as  messengers,  instead  of  boys,  and  that  they 
are  more  prompt  and  efficient.  The  economic  argu- 
ment for  child  labor  is  but  a  pretext,  and  a  very  weak 
one  at  that. 

Few  States  have  as  yet  made  any  attempt  to  regu- 
late this  form  of  child  labor.  New  York  has  a  stat- 
ute, but  Pennsylvania  has  none;  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire  alone  among  the  New  England  States 
have  acted ;  and  Wisconsin  is  the  only  one  among  the 
older  Western  communities  to  attack  this  problem; 
no  Southern  State  has  done  anything.  The  newer 
States,  where  the  need  is  least,  have  done  most :  Okla- 
homa, Colorado,  Utah,  and  Nevada  have  the  best  laws. 
The  older  commonwealths  and  the  richer  should  blush 
to  find  themselves  surpassed  by  Utah  and  Nevada  in 
anything  that  relates  to  human  welfare.  Utah  and 
Wisconsin  alone  make  the  age  for  street  labor  as  high 
as  twelve  years;  other  States  content  themselves  with 
prohibiting  boys  under  ten  from  engaging  in  street 
occupations.  Practically  all  make  the  age  limit  for 
girls  sixteen  years,  which  is  more  praiseworthy.  Still, 
it  is  apparent  that  much  remains  to  be  done,  even  in 
States  that  have  done  something,  before  regulation  of 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE   CHILD  147 

this  form  of  child  labor  can  be  said  to  be  at  all  satis- 
factory. 

It  is  charged  by  some  that  what  has  already  been 
done  in  the  way  of  legislation  has  made  the  lot  of  the 
child  rather  worse  than  better — that  our  zeal  is  so 
little  according  to  knowledge  as  to  make  reformers 
more  dangerous  as  friends  than  employers  are  as  ene- 
mies. It  may  be  so.  It  almost  certainly  will  be  so, 
if  reforms  are  suffered  to  go  singly.  Other  measures 
of  social  justice,  like  a  minimum  wage  for  the  head  of 
the  family,  compulsory  insurance  from  accident  and 
unemployment,  and  old  age  pensions,  must  go  hand  in 
hand  with  abolition  of  child  labor,  as  well  as  the  bet- 
ter provisions  for  education  already  outlined,  or  we 
shall  take  the  child  out  of  the  streets  and  factories 
only  to  thrust  him  into  the  jails  and  almshouses.  We 
must  guard  lest  we  attempt  to  be  kind  only  to  be 
cruel.  There  is  grave  danger,  and  we  shall  do  well 
to  recognize  it,  that  society,  in  a  blind  attempt  at  re- 
form, may  come  to  practice  a  brutality  greater  than 
it  now  reprehends  in  the  capitalist. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  PROBLEM   OF  THE  SLUM 

THE  slum  is  the  problem  of  great  cities,  but  it  is 
not  the  problem  of  all  great  cities.  New  York  and 
Chicago,  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  have  slums;  Lon- 
don has  slums;  but  the  cities  of  continental  Europe 
for  the  most  part  have  no  slums.  European  cities  have 
a  housing  problem  to  solve,  but  not  a  slum  problem. 
The  slum  is  a  social  disease  that  may  be  named  Amer- 
icanitis. 

This  is  an  acute  problem  in  American  cities  for 
many  reasons.  We  have  felt  to  the  full  the  universal 
modern  tendency  toward  urban  concentration  of  popu- 
lation. Immigration  has  also  produced  a  congestion 
of  foreign  population  in  all  our  large  cities,  especially 
those  on  or  near  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  There  has 
been  no  efficient  planning  of  our  cities ;  their  extension 
into  the  original  suburbs  has  been  the  haphazard  proc- 
ess of  profitable  speculation,  complicated  by  all  sorts 
of  municipal  "graft."  Until  recently,  all  our  cities 
have  permitted  their  people  to  erect  any  sort  of  build- 
ings anywhere,  of  all  kinds  of  materials,  and  to  main- 
tain for  occupation  buildings  that  long  since  ought  to 
have  been  condemned  and  torn  down.  Only  our 
larger  cities  now  place  any  effective  restrictions  on 
building,  and  these  restrictions  are  nowhere  such  as 

148 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  149 

they  should  be.  It  is  our  lack  of  thought  and  foresight 
that  are  chiefly  responsible  for  the  existence  of  the 
slum.  Our  municipalities  live  from  hand  to  mouth 
and  to  educate  them  to  any  other  method  is  a  slow 
and  painful  process. 

New  York  is,  of  course,  the  city  in  which  Ameri- 
canitis  is  most  severe.  Of  the  3,437,202  people  in 
Greater  New  York  in  1900,  more  than  two-thirds  of 
the  whole,  or  2,372,079  lived  in  tenement  houses.  The 
figures  for  1910  when  available  will  certainly  show 
larger  numbers,  and  may  show  a  larger  proportion,  of 
tenement-dwellers.  In  1900  there  were  82,652  tene- 
ments in  Manhattan  and  33,771  in  Brooklyn.  Of 
course,  a  large  proportion  of  these,  perhaps  half,  were 
more  or  less  pretentious  "apartments"  outside  of  the 
slums,  occupied  by  the  rich  and  well-to-do.  Though 
many  of  these  are  far  from  ideal  from  the  sanitary 
point  of  view,  they  are  occupied  by  a  class  who  are 
able  to  look  out  for  themselves,  and  may  be  trusted 
to  insist  on  a  certain  standard  of  cleanliness  and 
health  fulness,  even  if  that  standard  be  not  always  the 
highest.  It  is  the  other  half,  whose  poverty  compels 
them  to  take  what  they  can  get  in  the  way  of  habita- 
tions, who  must  be  housed  in  the  slums  or  not  at  all, 
whose  plight  calls  for  our  sympathy  and  help.  What 
is  thus  true  of  New  York  is  true  in  varying  degrees  of 
all  our  large  cities,  and  may  become  true  of  the  small. 

I 

After  all,  the  slum  problem,  though  exceedingly 
grave,  is  comparatively  simple.  The  slum  as  it  exists 


I5O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

is  a  complicated  affair  it  is  true,  and  its  existence  com- 
plicates or  intensifies  almost  every  other  social  problem 
of  the  great  cities,  but  it  has  a  single  cause  and  may 
be  the  most  easily  and  quickly  cured  of  all  our  great 
social  ills.  For  the  slum  is  purely  and  simply  the  re- 
sult of  bad  housing,  and  the  slum  may  be  forever 
eradicated  by  good  housing.  On  the  theoretic  side  it 
is  a  problem  in  engineering  and  architecture;  on  the 
practical  side  it  is  a  problem  in  finance.  There  is  noth- 
ing mysterious,  nothing  even  difficult,  in  the  terms  of 
our  problem;  we  understand  it  perfectly;  further  in- 
vestigation or  study  will  increase  our  knowledge  in 
detail,  but  are  not  needed  for  action ;  we  have  come  to 
the  point  where  the  only  requisite  is  to  do  something, 
and  to  do  it  quickly  and  well.  It  is  a  problem  of  the 
practical  type  with  which  the  American  genius  is  pe- 
culiarly fitted  to  cope.  It  is,  in  a  word,  a  business 
man's  problem,  and  the  everlasting  wonder  is  that 
Christian  business  men  do  not  tackle  it  and  get  it  out 
of  the  way.  If  Christianity  meant  anything  to  them 
in  their  business  life  they  surely  would. 

The  slum  has  become  a  moral  condition,  but  it  has 
a  purely  physical  cause.  Hence  we  are  wasting  our 
present  efforts  to  combat  it  with  moral  remedies.  The 
effective  remedy  must  be,  like  the  cause,  physical. 
When  we  analyze  the  facts  of  the  slum  we  come  to 
this  at  the  bottom  of  all :  The  evils  of  the  slum  are 
all  traceable  to  the  attempt  to  house  a  large  population 
in  dwellings  intended  to  house  a  small  population.  If 
the  number  of  dwellers  were  limited  to  the  number  for 
which  the  building  was  planned,  there  might  be  un- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM 

sanitary  quarters  and  unwholesome  houses,  but  not 
the  slum.  It  is  the  combination  of  bad  housing  and 
overcrowding  that  constitutes  the  evil,  which  is  thus 
physical  in  its  base,  moral  in  its  results.  "Five  into 
one  you  can't"  we  used  to  be  told  in  the  arithmetic 
class,  but  the  modern  landlord  is  superior  to  mathe- 
matics. "Five  into  one  I  can"  he  says,  and  he  does 
it — puts  five  families  into  a  building  constructed  for 
but  one  family.  When  this  is  done  through  a  large 
section  of  a  city,  the  inevitable  result  is  a  slum.  Dirt, 
degradation,  vice,  crime  find  a  congenial  residence  and 
a  safe  shelter  in  the  slum.  Poverty  lives  there  because 
it  has  no  choice;  disease  flourishes  there  because  it 
finds  ample  material  to  work  on  and  conditions  just 
made  for  it ;  vice  and  crime  run  to  cover  there  because 
it  is  an  ideal  hiding  place  for  those  who  love  darkness 
because  their  deeds  are  evil. 

Let  us,  however,  be  just  to  the  landlord ;  not  all  the 
evils  of  the  slum,  not  even  all  its  overcrowding,  are 
justly  chargeable  to  him.  His  reckless  and  inhuman 
greed  is  responsible  for  only  part  of  the  overcrowding 
of  the  slums ;  the  people  of  the  slums  ably  second  his 
efforts.  The  greed  of  the  landlord  is  paralleled  by 
the  greed  of  his  tenants,  who  sublet  their  rooms  or 
small  apartments  to  lodgers.  This  is  especially  true 
of  some  of  our  foreign  populations,  who  thus  receive 
from  lodgers  almost  or  quite  enough  to  pay  their  own 
rent.  Inspectors  have  found  incredible  numbers  of 
people,  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages,  occupying  a  single 
room.  In  one  home  reported,  not  only  was  all  the 
floor  space  occupied,  but  three  men  slept  on  the  piano ! 


T52  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

In  another  three  girls,  earning  an  average  of  $10  a 
week,  slept  on  the  floor  of  a  dark  closet.  The  result 
always  to  the  health,  and  often  to  the  morals,  of  those 
herded  together  in  this  indecent  and  unsanitary  man- 
ner hardly  needs  to  be  enlarged  upon.  That  such  prac- 
tices should  be  made  not  only  unlawful  but  impossible 
cannot  be  regarded  as  a  question  for  argument. 

When  one  says  that  the  slum  may  be  easily  de- 
stroyed by  providing  good  housing,  one  should  not  be 
understood  to  say  that  all  the  things  found  in  the  pres- 
ent slums  will  immediately  disappear.  Poverty,  for 
instance,  has  a  much  deeper  cause  than  overcrowding, 
and  will  be  far  more  difficult  to  cure.  The  destruction 
of  the  slum  will  greatly  decrease  vice  and  crime,  but 
they  will  still  remain  problems  to  be  dealt  with.  Dis- 
ease would  probably  be  lessened  fifty  per  cent,  by  the 
removal  of  the  slums,  but  disease  will  still  present  a 
knotty  social  problem  when  the  slum  is  gone.  As  the 
slum  is  not  the  sole  social  evil,  or  the  sole  cause  of  so- 
cial evils,  we  are  to  expect  progress,  not  victory,  as 
the  result  of  its  elimination.  It  is  important  that  we 
have  a  clear  understanding  of  what  it  is  fair  to  ex- 
pect as  the  result  of  a  successful  campaign  against  the 
slum,  or  inevitable  disappointment  awaits  us. 

This  matter  of  good  housing  must  be  regarded  as 
fundamental  among  our  social  reforms.  Children 
growing  up  in  dark,  ill-ventilated,  filthy  houses  cannot 
be  expected  to  reach  normal  physical  development. 
Healthy  bodies  are  possible  only  amid  healthy  sur- 
roundings. The  school  problems  that  we  have  already 
had  occasion  to  note  are  greatly  aggravated,  if  not 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  153 

wholly  caused,  by  the  slum.  Pupils  cannot  do  their 
school  work  properly  if  their  vitality  is  sapped  by  their 
environment;  and  they  are  graduated  from  the  school 
to  begin  the  serious  business  of  life  with  the  double 
handicap  of  weak  body  and  undeveloped  mind.  The 
slum  is,  therefore,  an  economic  blunder  of  the  first 
magnitude.  If  no  ethical  considerations  were  in- 
volved, simply  as  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents,  solely 
as  a  question  of  industrial  efficiency,  society  cannot  af- 
ford so  expensive  a  luxury.  The  slum  diminishes  the 
productive  capacity  of  its  inhabitants  by  fully  fifty  per 
cent.  Even  America,  loudly  as  we  boast  of  our  na- 
tional wealth,  is  not  rich  enough  to  dismiss  as  trifling 
such  a  drain  on  her  resources  as  this. 

There  is  great  danger  that  anything  like  adequate 
statements  regarding  the  slum  will  be  looked  upon  as 
exaggeration  by  those  who  have  given  no  attention  to 
the  matter.  And  one  difficulty  in  dealing  with  the  sub- 
ject is  lack  of  those  precise  figures  that  are  so  convinc- 
ing to  minds  of  a  certain  type.  The  physical  effects  of 
overcrowding  have  not  been  scientifically  investigated 
in  America,  but  a  careful  study  has  been  made  in  some 
foreign  cities,  notably  in  Berlin.  It  was  found  there 
that  there  was  a  death  rate  of  163.5  Per  i>ooo  families 
occupying  a  single  room,  22.5  for  families  occupying 
two  rooms,  7.5  for  those  who  had  three  rooms,  and  5.4 
for  those  having  four  or  more.  That  rapidly  descend- 
ing scale  tells  its  own  story.  And  yet  not  all  of  this 
tremendous  difference  in  death  rates  can  be  justly  as- 
cribed to  the  one  cause  of  overcrowding.  No  small 
part  must,  of  course,  be  assigned  to  the  general  eco- 


154  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

nomic  differences  between  the  families  investigated. 
A  family  able  to  occupy  three  rooms  and  pay  the  rent 
for  them  would  also  be  able  to  afford  more  nourish- 
ing and  more  abundant  food,  more  and  better  cloth- 
ing, and  probably  better  nursing  and  medical  care  of 
its  sick  members  than  a  family  so  poor  as  to  be  com- 
pelled to  live  in  one  room.  Nevertheless,  that  over- 
crowding vastly  increases  the  death  rate,  in  an  inverse 
geometrical  ratio  to  the  rooms  occupied,  is  a  conclu- 
sion that  such  figures  absolutely  compel. 

We  should  begin  the  work  of  housing  reform  with 
a  conviction  that  housing  evils  are  not  necessary.  The 
slum  is  not  rooted  in  the  nature  of  things,  inseparable 
from  dwelling  together  in  cities.  Our  present  evil 
plight  is  due  to  a  combination  of  ignorance,  neglect, 
and  greed.  Even  fifty  years  ago  nobody  could  have 
foreseen  the  growth  of  our  American  cities.  Most 
people  have  heard  the  story  of  the  city  hall  in  New 
York,  and  how  the  wise  city  fathers  voted  to  have  the 
rear  walls  built  of  brick,  while  the  rest  was  of  white 
marble,  on  the  ground  that  the  city  would  never  ex- 
tend above  that  point  and  so  the  material  of  the  rear 
wall  did  not  matter.  Nobody,  therefore,  thought  of 
the  housing  problem  as  a  problem;  the  simple  thing 
was  to  build  houses  as  fast  as  they  were  wanted,  and, 
as  that  had  always  been  done,  everybody  thought  that 
always  would  be  done,  if  he  took  the  trouble  to  think 
anything  about  it.  And  when  the  matter  began  to  be 
a  problem  people  were  too  busy  and  had  too  little  civic 
conscience  to  do  anything  about  it  until  the  evils  be- 
came great  and  crying.  Then,  the  horse  having  been 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    SLUM  155 

stolen,  we  carefully  locked  the  stable  door,  after  our 
usual  habit. 

The  slum  problem  would  be  much  easier  of  solution 
but  for  a  false  civic  pride  that  devotes  its  energies, 
not  to  learning  facts  and  applying  remedies,  but  to 
concealing  facts  and  discouraging  investigation,  on  the 
ground  that  publicity  will  hurt  the  town.  Things  can- 
not be  harmful  if  they  are  kept  hidden,  is  the  con- 
cealed premise  of  those  who  thus  reason  and  act.  But 
any  sound  reasoning  and  policy  must  be  based  on  an 
exactly  contrary  premise:  that  nothing  evil  can  be 
made  less  evil  by  concealment,  and  that  publicity  is  the 
first  step  toward  a  remedy.1  Next  to  this  false  civic 
sentiment  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  better  housing 
conditions  is  the  apathy  of  the  well-to-do,  who,  because 
they  are  comfortable,  cannot  be  roused  to  the  helping 
of  others. 

The  encouraging  feature  of  the  present  situation  is 
that  ignorance  is  passing  away;  that  apathy  and  ne- 
glect are  giving  place  to  intelligent  interest;  and  that 
greed,  if  it  cannot  be  shamed  into  decency,  is  about  to 
be  restrained  by  law. 


II 


In  theory,  at  least,  the  problem  of  good  housing  is 
not  complicated.    We  are  sufficiently  familiar  with  bad 

1  Housing  surveys  and  reports  now  accessible  to  the  public 
have  been  made  in  Baltimore,  Boston,  Chicago,  Cleveland,  Kan- 
sas City  (Missouri),  Louisville,  Philadelphia,  St.  Louis,  San 
Francisco. 


156  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

housing:  those  ill-ventilated,  ill-lighted,  damp  build- 
ings miscalled  houses,  with  foul  courts  and  fouler  cel- 
lars, with  little  plumbing  and  that  bad,  insufficiently 
supplied  with  water,  with  toilet  conveniences  wholly 
inadequate  and  often  dangerous  to  the  public  health, 
reeking  with  filth  and  infested  with  vermin  and  disease 
germs,  which  constitute  the  tenements  of  our  large 
cities.  Such  buildings  are  directly  or  indirectly  re- 
sponsible for  the  major  part  of  industrial  inefficiency, 
inebriety,  disease,  vice,  crime,  juvenile  delinquency,  de- 
based citizenship,  and  race  degeneration  that  afflict 
American  society  to-day.  Why  do  we  tolerate  such 
moral  pest-houses?  Why  do  we  not  make  it  possible 
for  even  the  poorest  family  to  have  something  worthy 
to  be  called  a  home :  an  apartment  suitable  to  its  means 
and  size  in  a  well-constructed,  well-lighted,  well-venti- 
lated building,  clean  and  sanitary,  securing  to  them 
reasonable  comfort  and  privacy,  with  courts  in  the 
rear  in  which  there  shall  be  grass  and  flower-beds  and 
playgrounds  for  the  children? 

Some  will  doubtless  reply  that  one  might  as  well 
expect  to  see  the  New  Jerusalem  come  down  to  earth, 
that  those  who  demand  such  things  are  amusing  them- 
selves with  Utopias  that  can  never  have  objective 
existence.  But  the  above  is  a  literal,  exact  descrip- 
tion of  what  Berlin  to-day  offers  working  people. 
Large  numbers  of  model  tenements  have  been  erected 
in  that  city  within  the  last  generation,  some  by  munici- 
pal enterprise,  some  by  private,  containing  no  fewer 
than  10,000  apartments.  The  enterprise  has  given  so 
high  satisfaction  that  it  is  growing  in  importance  every 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    SLUM  157 

year.  Many  of  the  privately  built  tenements  are  co- 
operative, and  the  tenants  own  their  apartments  for 
life  and  for  the  lives  of  their  children.  These  new 
houses  are  built  with  sound-proof  floors  and  double 
windows,  and  each  group  of  apartments  is  provided 
with  cafe,  library,  assembly-room,  and  kindergarten. 
Only  half  of  a  lot  may  be  occupied  by  a  building,  which 
ensures  a  large  central  court,  with  grass-plots,  trees, 
sand  piles  for  children,  bars,  swings  and  so  on.  Apart- 
ments are  of  various  sizes,  adapted  to  large  families 
or  small,  and  the  number  of  persons  that  may  occupy 
each  is  strictly  limited  by  law.  There  is  poverty  in 
these  tenements  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  a  well-darned, 
well-brushed,  well-scrubbed  poverty  very  different 
from  that  of  the  slum.  And  there  is  very  little  of  vice 
or  crime,  while  disease  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Shall 
we  go  on  saying  that  what  is  actual  in  European  cit- 
ies is  chimerical  when  proposed  for  our  own? 

It  is  a  condition  of  good  housing  in  our  cities  that 
nobody  should  be  permitted  to  build  in  the  central 
space  of  its  squares;  every  house  should  front  on  a 
street  and  have  assurance  of  plentiful  light  and  air. 
The  back-yard  house,  or  rear  tenement,  is  one  of  the 
great  menaces  to  public  health  and  morals.  Investiga- 
tion of  the  children  brought  into  the  juvenile  courts  of 
Philadelphia  has  shown  that  ninety  per  cent,  of  the 
children  came  from  houses  of  this  kind.1  In  the  sum- 
mer the  temperature  is  16  degrees  higher  in  such  courts 

1  This  statement  is  made  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Bernard  J. 
Newman,  Secretary  of  the  Philadelphia  Housing  Commission, 
who  has  specially  investigated  the  question. 


158  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

than  on  the  streets.  The  effect  of  these  conditions 
on  the  health  of  the  inmates  does  not  need  to  be  de- 
scribed. The  unfortunate  tenants  pay  the  price  in  sick- 
ness and  death  for  these  defects  in  housing.  The  com- 
munity does  not  realize  what  a  tax  the  community  as 
a  whole  is  paying  in  order  that  a  few  property  owners 
may  have  the  privilege  of  maintaining  such  conditions. 

True,  one  of  our  chief  housing  experts,  Mr.  Law- 
rence Veiller,  pronounces  the  general  opinion  that  rear 
tenements  are  in  themselves  bad  "an  interesting  fal- 
lacy," and  declares  that  "there  is  nothing  in  the  fact 
that  the  building  is  located  in  the  rear  away  from  the 
street  which  makes  the  house  bad  in  itself."  But  even 
the  opinion  of  an  expert  cannot  set  aside  hard  facts 
like  those  quoted  above.  Mr.  Veiller  is  doubtless  right 
in  saying  that  some  of  the  existing  rear  tenements  are 
better  habitations  than  some  of  those  fronting  on  the 
street.  But  this  does  not  affect  the  reason  why  all 
such  buildings  should  be  abolished  as  soon  as  possible 
and  no  more  should  be  built:  that  it  is  impossible  to 
erect  buildings  within  the  squares  of  our  American 
cities  and  secure  to  them  sufficient  light  and  air  to 
make  them  sanitary.  It  is  true  that  in  many  European 
cities  it  is  common  to  erect  buildings  in  central  courts, 
and  that  many  of  these  are  excellent  in  sanitary  char- 
acter. But  the  squares  or  "blocks"  of  these  cities  are 
larger  than  ours,  and  consequently  European  cities  can 
permit  what  we  must  forbid. 

About  forty  years  ago,  though  there  was  no  general 
awakening  on  the  subject,  a  few  people  began  to  per- 
ceive the  importance  of  housing  reform,  and  conceived 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  159 

the  idea  that  private  enterprise  was  quite  adequate  to 
secure  the  necessary  changes.  Their  fundamental  idea 
was  sounder  than  their  method.  The  old  notion  had 
been :  Make  men  good  and  they  will  better  their  sur- 
roundings. The  new  idea  was :  Better  the  surround- 
ings and  it  will  be  easier  to  make  men  good.  Both 
ideas  are  true,  and  neither  is  the  whole  truth.  We 
approximate  the  whole  truth,  not  when  we  regard  our- 
selves as  compelled  to  choose  between  the  two  as  hos- 
tile alternatives,  but  when  we  conceive  them  as  com- 
plementary. Yet  here  again  experience  has  taught 
us  not  to  expect  too  much.  Model  buildings  will  not 
of  themselves  make  tenants  clean  in  body  and  mind, 
though  model  buildings  decidedly  encourage  cleanli- 
ness. The  unclean  and  immoral  tenant  will  still  be  an 
object  of  instruction  in  better  ways,  and  of  legal  dis- 
cipline if  he  refuses  to  reform. 

It  was  soon  discovered  that  private  enterprise  was 
not  adequate.  Not  a  few  of  the  experiments  in  model 
buildings  were  failures  from  every  point  of  view. 
Some  were  badly  planned,  some  were  extravagantly 
built,  some  were  unwisely  managed.  On  the  other 
hand,  some  were  from  the  first  successful,  like  the 
block  of  model  tenements  built  by  Mr.  Alfred  T. 
White  in  Brooklyn,  in  1877.  In  1896  the  City  and 
Suburban  Homes  Company  built  tenements  in  New 
York  that  were  entirely  successful  and  paid  five  per 
cent,  on  the  investment  from  the  beginning.  It  turned 
out,  however,  that  these  object  lessons  of  what  might 
be  done  had  little  or  no  influence  on  the  building  enter- 
prises of  New  York  and  Brooklyn.  The  ordinary 


l6o  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

commercial  builder  continued  to  ask  himself,  not  if 
model  tenements  were  feasible,  but  if  they  were  as 
profitable  as  other  less  costly  buildings.  Object  les- 
sons count  for  little  with  those  whose  end  is  profit, 
unless  it  be  an  object  lesson  in  making  money.  And 
to  the  rich  men  of  New  York,  even  those  of  benevolent 
impulses,  "philanthropy  and  five  per  cent."  did  not 
prove  an  attractive  bait. 

In  forty  years  of  private  enterprise  slight  progress 
was  made  toward  solution  of  the  housing  problem  in 
New  York.  In  that  time  89  houses  were  built  on  the 
"model  tenement"  plan,  with  accommodations  for  17,- 
940  persons,  while  during  the  same  time  commercial 
builders  erected  27,100  tenements,  which  house  1,267,- 
550  people.  It  would  require  a  long  time,  proceeding 
at  that  rate,  to  solve  the  housing  problem  by  private 
enterprise.  But  in  1901  the  legislature  passed  the  first 
statute  enacted  in  the  State  of  New  York  that  exacted 
of  builders  a  fair  standard  of  tenement  construction. 
For  the  first  time  a  sufficiency  of  light  and  air  was 
prescribed,  adequate  sanitary  arrangements,  and  suit- 
able precautions  against  fire,  including  fireproof  stair- 
cases and  halls,  as  well  as  fire-escapes.  In  essential 
particulars  the  houses  erected  under  this  act  are 
"model"  tenements;  and  since  its  enactment  ordinary 
building  enterprise  has  provided  21,761  houses,  with 
room  for  1,266,275  people.  The  experience  of  New 
York  seems  to  point  out  to  other  cities  the  way  in 
which  best  results  may  be  expected  under  present  con- 
ditions :  a  statute  that  will  virtually  say  to  builders : 
"You  shall  not  build  a  house  in  which  people  ought  not 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE   SLUM  l6l 

to  live."  Should  there  be  in  years  to  come  a  marked 
change  in  the  terms  on  which  land  is  held  and  im- 
proved, the  case  might  be  altered. 


Ill 


We  have  learned  then  what  we  need  to  do  and  how 
not  to  do  it.  Our  chief  reliance  for  housing  reform 
must  be  on  wise  legislation.  Two  things  must  be 
aimed  at :  abolition  of  existing  buildings  unfit  for  hab- 
itation, and  prevention  of  inadequate  building  for  the 
future.  The  latter  is  incomparably  the  easier  task. 
Any  city  will  find  it  comparatively  a  simple  matter  to 
establish  building  regulations  such  as  will  ensure  the 
erection  of  "model"  houses  for  the  time  to  come ;  and 
exceedingly  difficult  to  undo  the  mistakes  of  the  past. 
The  sooner,  therefore,  the  future  is  taken  in  hand  and 
made  reasonably  secure  the  better  for  all  concerned. 
As  a  rule,  our  cities  have  not  sufficient  authority  to 
enact  proper  measures  for  themselves,  but  must  have 
recourse  to  the  legislatures  of  their  States.  Here, 
then,  is  the  first  objective  of  effort  at  reform. 

In  several  States  efforts  have  been  repeatedly  made 
to  secure  a  good  building  law,  and  their  successes  and 
failures  are  instructive  for  others.  The  tenement 
problem  first  pressed  in  New  York,  and  in  1877  that 
city  secured  from  the  State  legislature  a  bill  which  was 
believed  to  be  a  solution  of  the  problem.  But,  owing 
to  the  inexperience  of  those  who  drafted  the  statute, 
this  law  opened  the  way  to  some  of  the  worst  abuses 


1 62  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

and  errors  of  housing  that  have  ever  been  known.  The 
notorious  "dumb-bell"  tenements  were  planned  by 
builders  so  as  to  comply  with  the  provisions  of  the 
law  but  to  be  more  promotive  of  disease,  vice,  and 
crime  than  any  of  the  older  "rookeries"  that  they  dis- 
placed. In  round  numbers  10,000  of  these  tenements 
were  built  in  New  York,  containing  over  100,000  dark 
rooms,  including  rooms  opening  into  so-called  "air- 
shafts"  which  admit  little  air  and  less  light.  These 
rooms,  into  which  sunlight  can  never  enter  and  where 
fresh  air  is  almost  unknown,  are  surcharged  with  dis- 
ease, and  are  the  abodes  of  the  vicious  and  the  criminal 
as  well  as  of  the  virtuous  and  unfortunate  poor.  They 
send  a  stream  of  sick  to  our  hospitals  and  of  criminals 
to  our  jails  and  prisons.  The  respectable  and  self-re- 
specting workers  must  live  side  by  side  with  the  vicious 
and  the  diseased.  We  have  here  most  effective  dem- 
onstration of  what  has  been  previously  said,  that  good 
intentions  are  not  sufficient  equipment  for  the  would- 
be  reformer,  that  expert  knowledge  of  actual  condi- 
tions and  effective  remedies  is  indispensable.  Legis- 
latures do  not  possess  this;  many  "reformers"  do  not 
possess  it.  Statutes  will  be  worse  than  useless,  they 
are  likely  to  be  positively  harmful,  unless  they  are 
drawn  with  help  of  the  best  expert  aid. 

For  the  most  part,  existing  statutes  are  far  too  lax, 
and,  such  as  they  are,  they  are  inadequately  enforced. 
In  particular,  almost  nothing  is  attempted  toward  the 
demolition  of  the  older  and  more  unsuitable  buildings. 
That  this  is  a  task  beset  with  many  difficulties  has  al- 
ready been  recognized,  but  that  a  thing  is  difficult  is 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  163 

no  reason  for  utter  failure  to  attempt  it.  As  in  the 
matter  of  erecting  new  buildings,  the  demolition  of 
the  old  has  been  left  to  private  enterprise.  The  ob- 
stacle that  prevents  progress  by  this  method  is  the 
same  that  we  encounter  when  we  analyze  any  of  our 
social  ills — Profit.  The  old  building  is  the  most  lucra- 
tive form  of  real  estate  investment,  returning  often  an 
income  of  fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent.,  while  a  building 
up  to  modern  requirements  would  be  so  comparatively 
costly  that  the  net  income  would  certainly  be  less  than 
ten  per  cent,  and  perhaps  not  over  five.  The  average 
owner  cannot  be  expected  to  improve  his  property 
under  such  circumstances ;  it  would  not  be  "good  busi- 
ness." The  moral  sentiment  of  the  community,  ex- 
pressed in  statute,  must  compel  him  to  act.  Such 
statute  should  not  be  too  drastic.  It  should  prescribe 
a  reasonable  limit  of  time  within  which  the  improve- 
ment must  be  made.  Recognizing  that  it  has  hitherto 
acquiesced  in  the  wrong  and  so  has  become  a  partner 
in  the  guilt,  the  city  should,  in  some  cases,  bear  a  part 
of  the  expense  or  grant  a  temporary  relief  from  taxa- 
tion that  would  counterbalance  the  expense  thrown 
on  the  owner. 

A  single  type  of  statute  will  not  serve  for  all  cities, 
because  the  terms  of  the  housing  problem  are  dif- 
ferent in  the  small  city  from  those  of  the  large,  and 
are  by  no  means  the  same  even  in  the  large  cities.  New 
York  is  unique ;  it  stands  in  a  class  by  itself.  Its  physi- 
cal conditions  doom  it  to  the  tenement  house  forever, 
because  it  can  house  its  immense  population  in  no  other 
way.  But  other  American  cities  not  only  have  a  small- 


164  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

er  population  to  house,  but  have  practically  unlimited 
opportunity  to  spread  in  all  directions.  Given  good 
transit  facilities,  they  can  distribute  their  population 
over  a  wide  territory.  Hence,  in  most  cities  realiza- 
tion of  ideal  housing  is  a  possibility,  and  that  ideal  is 
a  separate  house  for  every  family.  The  detached,  or 
semi-detached  house,  in  which  the  greater  part  of  the 
working  people  of  Philadelphia  live,  for  example,  is 
duplicated  in  a  large  number  of  American  cities  and 
should  be  characteristic  of  all.  There  is  no  difficulty 
in  building  such  houses,  in  ample  numbers  to  supply 
the  demand,  by  private  enterprise;  and,  for  the  most 
part,  there  is  little  fault  to  be  found  with  their  sani- 
tary condition.  Their  rents  also,  though  probably 
higher  than  they  should  be,  are  not  exorbitant. 
Through  the  aid  of  building  and  loan  cooperative  so- 
cieties many  thousands  of  workers  have  been  able  to 
buy  their  houses  and  be  their  own  landlords. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  clear  municipal  duty  to  provide 
rapid  transit  to  suburbs,  or  at  least  to  see  that  it  is 
provided.  Without  such  provision  the  ideal  solution 
of  the  housing  problem  cannot  be  regarded  as  within 
the  bounds  of  possibility.  The  worker  must  live  near 
his  work ;  we  must  accept  that  as  one  absolute  datum 
of  our  problem.  But  nearness  has  come  to  be  a  mat- 
ter of  time  rather  than  of  space.  For  the  rich  man 
with  his  automobile,  the  suburb  is  to-day  nearer  his 
office  than  his  city  house  used  to  be ;  and  the  result  is 
that,  more  and  more,  the  rich  are  living  in  the  suburbs 
and  deserting  the  cities.  Rapid  transit  puts  the  poor 
man  on  a  level  with  the  rich  in  this  access  to  his  work, 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE   SLUM  165 

and  so  the  poor  man  can  also  live  in  a  suburb.  What- 
ever may  be  the  policy  of  society  in  the  future  toward 
all  means  of  transportation,  its  present  attitude  toward 
city  and  suburban  railways  should  no  longer  be  doubt- 
ful. Whatever  private  enterprise  is  unable  or  unwill- 
ing to  undertake,  our  municipalities  must  supply.  This 
is  no  more  than  organized  society  owes  to  the  units 
that  compose  it.  And  if  our  present  municipal  ma- 
chinery lacks  either  courage  or  intelligence  to  attack 
this  problem  and  deal  with  it  successfully  it  must  be 
swept  out  of  existence  and  something  more  effective 
must  be  devised  and  put  in  its  place.  For  this  slum 
problem  is  literally  a  question  of  life  or  death;  the 
cities  must  conquer  the  slums  or  the  slums  will  con- 
quer the  cities. 

In  cities  where  tenement  houses,  few  or  many,  must 
be  built,  a  few  general  principles  should  control  their 
erection.  The  health  and  safety  of  the  dwellers  should 
be  the  first  consideration.  It  would  be  injudicious  to 
accept  the  suggestion  of  some  and  require  all  such 
buildings  to  be  of  fireproof  construction.  If  building 
is  made  too  costly  it  will  cease  altogether  and,  as  a  re- 
sult, the  housing  problem  will  become  more  acute  than 
ever.  Slow-burning  construction  would  suffice,  all 
halls  and  staircases  to  be  of  iron  and  stone  or  brick, 
with  adequate  fire  escapes  as  an  additional  security 
against  fire.  A  minimum  size  of  rooms  should  be  pre- 
scribed ;  every  room  should  have  a  window  opening 
either  on  the  street  or  on  an  open  court  of  prescribed 
size.  The  plumbing  should  be  of  the  best,  the  water 
supply  abundant,  and  toilet  facilities  adequate  for 


1 66  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

cleanliness  and  decency.  Experience  shows  that  not 
all  desirable  details  need  be  prescribed.  Though  the 
New  York  tenement  law  of  1901  prescribed  only  a 
private  toilet  for  each  apartment,  85  per  cent,  of  the 
houses  built  under  that  act  provide  a  bathroom  also. 
Overcrowding  should  be  prevented  by  a  limitation  of 
the  number  that  may  occupy  each  room  and  apart- 
ment. The  cost  and  labor  of  inspection,  in  order  to 
enforce  all  these  details,  may,  in  large  part,  be  reduced 
by  throwing  responsibility  on  the  landlords.  They  and 
their  agents  know  better  than  anybody  else  whether 
the  legal  requirements  are  observed  in  their  houses, 
and  a  suitable  penalty  for  violation  would  stimulate 
them  to  considerable  vigilance. 

Inasmuch  as  the  back  yard  has  practically  disap- 
peared from  our  large  cities,  the  question  of  housing 
reform  is  directly  connected  with  another  important 
municipal  question :  the  providing  of  suitable  and  ade- 
quate parks  and  playgrounds.  Both  children  and 
adults  need  such  provision,  but  the  children  most  of 
all.  Chicago  has  lately  spent  $13,000,000  on  play- 
grounds, and  that  city  never  made  a  better  investment 
in  its  history.  More  than  18,000  of  the  youth  of  the 
town  are  organized  in  athletic  clubs,  and  the  results 
to  the  health  of  the  city  and  the  productive  power  of 
the  people  are  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  amount  of 
the  investment. 

IV 

We  must  by  no  means  pass  by  suggestions  and  plans 
for  the  relief  of  congested  population  in  our  cities, 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   THE  SLUM  167 

which  would,  of  course,  greatly  simplify  the  slum 
problem.  Our  newer  Western  communities,  where  the 
problem  is  less  urgent,  might  well  go  to  school  to 
Australia  and  learn  how  to  do  it.  Several  years  ago 
a  world-wide  competition  for  designs  of  a  proposed 
new  capital  city  was  instituted,  and  in  1912  the  first 
award  was  given  to  a  Chicago  architect  and  landscape 
gardener.  This  is  of  itself  guarantee  that  we  have 
brains  and  skill  available  to  solve  all  our  problems. 
The  new  Australian  capital  is  to  be  located  in  a  fed- 
eral tract  of  900  square  miles,  much  like  our  District 
of  Columbia.  The  plan  adopted  was  evidently  sug- 
gested by  Major  L'Enf ant's  design  for  the  city  of 
Washington,  but  modified  to  suit  the  conditions.  The 
city  will  be  built  around  two  lakes,  connected  by  an 
ornamental  waterway,  the  whole  forming  an  irregular 
body  of  water  some  eight  miles  long  and  from  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  to  two  miles  wide.  Four  distinct  quar- 
ters or  districts  are  set  off:  for  a  government  center, 
a  residential  section,  a  manufacturing  section,  and  a 
suburban  or  semi-agricultural  district.  Each  of  these 
has  its  own  center — a  park  and  public  buildings — with 
avenues  radiating  thence  like  spokes  from  a  hub,  and 
streets  of  parallelogram  arrangement.  Nothing  could 
make  a  stronger  appeal  at  once  to  the  eye  and  to  the 
imagination.  In  such  a  city  congestion  and  over- 
crowding will  forever  be  impossible.  In  the  matter  of 
the  slum,  an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  ton  of 
cure. 

As  to  the  older  cities,   the   Honorable  James   T. 
Bryce — it  does  not  seem  right  to  call  him  viscount — 


1 68  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

former  ambassador  from  England,  one  of  the  most 
profound  students  of  things  American,  in  an  address 
delivered  not  long  before  his  departure  from  our 
shores,  made  a  suggestion  of  much  value.  He  de- 
clared the  true  municipal  ideal  to  be  cities  of  150,000 
people.  He  said  the  country  would  be  more  prosper- 
ous and  happy  if  the  manufacturer  with  a  plant  to 
erect  would  take  it  away  from  the  great  centers  and 
place  it  in  the  heart  of  the  country,  where  a  garden 
city  would  form  around  it,  and  where  workers  and 
all  classes  of  individuals  could  lead  a  normal  and 
healthful  life. 

Mr.  Bryce  probably  meant  that  much  more  should 
be  done  than  has  been  done  along  this  line;  for  he 
could  not  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  some  experi- 
ments have  been  made,  though  not  with  the  most  en- 
couraging results.  The  town  of  Pullman,  on  the  out- 
skirts of  Chicago,  was  established  on  precisely  Mr. 
Bryce's  principle  by  the  corporation  of  that  name.  It 
was  and  is  a  model  town,  a  veritable  garden  city,  with 
broad  streets,  beautiful  parks,  perfectly  built  and  ap- 
pointed houses — a  place,  in  short, 

Where  every  prospect  pleases 
And  only  man  is  vile. 

In  fact,  man  was  very  vile  there.  The  exorbitant 
rents  charged  by  the  corporation  for  houses,  the 
equally  exorbitant  prices  exacted  by  the  corporation 
stores,  and  the  generally  tyrannical  management  of  the 
property,  first  provoked  one  of  the  greatest  strikes  of 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  169 

our  history  and  later  led  to  the  incorporation  of  the 
town  into  the  city  of  Chicago.  Its  people  preferred 
the  disadvantages  of  one  of  the  most  corrupt  city  gov- 
ernments in  the  world  to  longer  endurance  of  the  pa- 
ternal kindness  of  the  Pullman  corporation.1 

The  Krupps  have  established  a  similar  town  in  con- 
nection with  their  great  works  at  Essen,  the  Pittsburgh 
of  Germany.  The  streets  are  wide  and  clean,  parks  and 
trees  abound,  and  this  firm  has  had  enough  enlightened 
selfishness  to  build  a  sufficient  number  of  one-family 
houses  to  provide  for  the  workers,  and  to  charge  them 
a  lower  rent  than  private  landlords  at  Essen  formerly 
demanded.  A  garden  colony,  named  Altenhoff,  has 
also  been  established,  in  which  the  retired  and  infirm 
workers  live  free  of  rent.  There  are,  in  addition,  hos- 
pitals, sanatoriums,  and  other  helpful  institutions. 

But  possibly  Mr.  Bryce's  suggestion  was  prompted 
less  by  what  he  may  have  seen  or  read  in  the  United 
States  or  Germany  than  by  the  experience  of  his  own 
country.  Lever  Brothers,  makers  of  soap,  have  es- 
tablished a  garden  city  as  a  suburb  of  Liverpool.  Port 
Sunlight  occupies  an  area  of  230  acres  and  was 
planned  by  an  expert,  who  made  skilful  use  of  the 
natural  features  of  the  location.  Roads,  parks,  and 
public  buildings  are  the  best  of  their  kind.  The  cot- 
tages for  workers,  instead  of  the  usual  monotony,  dis- 

1  The  United  Steel  Corporation  is  in  process  of  establishing  a 
model  town  at  Gary,  Ind.,  but,  though  several  pictorial  and 
laudatory  accounts  of  its  progress  have  been  published,  there 
is  a  singular  lack  of  any  vital  information.  It  is  impossible,  at 
present,  to  form  any  intelligent  opinion  regarding  what  has  been 
accomplished  for  the  well-being  of  the  workers. 


I7O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

play  considerable  diversity  of  style.  Ample  play- 
grounds and  athletic  facilities  are  as  prominent  fea- 
tures of  the  city  as  church,  library,  or  art  gallery.  The 
rents  charged  are  merely  sufficient  to  keep  the  property 
in  good  repair  and  maintain  the  community  institu- 
tions, the  company  making  no  profit  from  an  invest- 
ment of  $2,500,000,  finding  its  sufficient  returns  in  the 
increased  welfare  and  efficiency  of  its  workers.  They 
recognize  that  "business  cannot  be  carried  on  by  physi- 
cally deficient  employees  any  more  than  war  can  be 
successfully  waged  by  physically  deficient  soldiers." 
This  is  one  of  the  most  enlightened  enterprises  of  its 
kind  anywhere  in  the  world. 

But  this  is  so  wholly  exceptional  a  garden  city,  be- 
cause of  the  exceptional  social  intelligence  of  its 
founders,  as  to  weaken  very  slightly  the  conclusion  that 
private  enterprise  cannot  be  expected  to  make  a  con- 
tribution of  much  value  to  the  housing  problem.  Port 
Sunlight  is  almost  solitary  among  proprietary  cities 
in  being  what  it  pretends  to  be.  Most  towns  of  the 
kind,  under  pretense  of  philanthropy,  have  been  a  mere 
means  of  skinning  the  workers.  Not  content  with  ex- 
ploiting them  in  the  factory,  corporations  have  made 
their  towns  an  additional  means  of  exploitation,  in 
rent,  food  and  everything  they  could  control.  With  an 
ingenuity  almost  more  than  human,  that  may  without 
prejudice  be  called  diabolical,  they  have  made  these 
fair-seeming  enterprises  the  means  of  stealing  from 
helpless  workers  the  last  possible  percentage  of  their 
product,  all  the  while  with  unctuous  hypocrisy  making 
loud  pretenses  of  benevolence  and  goodwill.  Long 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE  SLUM  171 

before  capitalists  as  a  class  could  be  raised  to  the  plane 
of  mental  and  ethical  eminence  of  Lever  Brothers, 
capitalism  will  have  ceased  to  be. 

The  most  hopeful  results,  up  to  the  present,  both  in 
England  and  in  Germany,  have  been  reached  where 
the  garden  city  has  not  been  a  humanitarian  enterprise, 
but  has  been  established  on  ordinary  business  princi- 
ples. Of  several  such  towns  a  good  representative  is 
Letchworth,  near  London.  It  is  a  cooperative  affair, 
the  profits  being  limited  to  five  per  cent.  It  occupies 
a  tract  of  nearly  4,000  acres,  and  has  grown  in  a  few 
years  to  a  population  of  7,000.  It  is  laid  out  on  the 
plan  of  an  English  country  village ;  streets  and  houses 
are  of  great  variety;  generous  provision  has  been  made 
for  athletic  sports  and  numerous  community  buildings 
are  provided. 

Little  has  been  done  as  yet  in  England  by  direct 
municipal  action  toward  the  establishment  of  garden 
cities,  but  much  has  been  done  in  Germany,  within  a 
very  short  time.  The  first  city  of  the  kind  was  Hel- 
lerau,  begun  in  1909  as  a  private  enterprise,  and  now 
cooperative  under  municipal  oversight.  It  occupies  a 
tract  of  345  acres  near  Dresden,  and  its  growth  from 
the  beginning  has  been  remarkable.  The  city  is  care- 
fully laid  out  with  regard  to  artistic  effect,  and  the 
carrying  out  of  the  idea  is  secured  by  having  a  com- 
mission pass  on  all  architects'  plans.  The  success  of 
Hellerau  has  stimulated  other  cities  to  undertake  like 
suburbs,  among  them  Niirnberg  and  Munich.  The 
German  ideal  of  a  garden  city  is  a  suburban  town  sys- 
tematically planned,  either  now  or  ultimately  to  be 


172  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

owned  by  the  municipality.  This  discourages  specula- 
tion in  land  and  ensures  that  the  increment  of  value 
shall  accrue  to  the  community. 

The  garden  city  naturally  commends  itself  to  those 
who  look  for  quick  results,  because  it  is  indisputably 
an  easier  project  than  remaking  an  old  city.  But, 
while  the  new  suburban  town  may  thus  be  made  to 
do  something  of  value  in  providing  for  the  housing  of 
thousands,  other  thousands  must  still  remain  in  the 
great  cities.  The  garden  city  is  a  palliative,  very  use- 
ful, quite  hopeful,  but  at  best  only  palliative;  it  is  no 
cure  for  the  slum.  The  larger  cities  will  continue  to 
exist;  in  all  probability  they  will  grow  even  larger, 
and  we  must  learn  how  to  live  under  these  conditions. 
The  city  must  be  rebuilt ;  the  slum  must  go. 


It  is  just  here  that  another  experience  of  Germany 
becomes  of  great  value  for  us.1  We  have  not  entirely 
outgrown  that  arrogance  of  spirit  which  led  an  Ameri- 
can Senator  of  a  past  generation  to  ask :  "What  have 
we  to  do  with  'abroad'?"  We  no  longer  flatly  deny 
that  Europe  can  teach  us,  but  we  are  not  yet  very 
eager  to  learn  lessons  from  that  quarter.  Nevertheless, 
it  will  be  well  for  us  to  realize  that  some  European 
countries  have  anticipated  us  in  dealing  with  social 

*  For  many  of  the  facts  in  IV  and  V  of  this  chapter  I  am 
indebted  to  Howe's  "European  Cities  at  Work,"  but  personal 
observation  confirms  the  facts  related  under  V. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  173 

problems,  and  in  particular  have  so  treated  the  slum 
that  it  is  rapidly  vanishing. 

Up  to  1870  there  was  no  country  more  backward 
than  Germany  in  treatment  of  the  slum  problem. 
Nothing  had  been  done  since  the  Middle  Ages  to  im- 
prove German  cities.  They  had  certain  advantages 
over  us,  however,  for  dealing  with  the  housing  of  their 
people.  The  very  age  of  their  towns  guaranteed  the 
existence  of  a  civic  pride  that  we  have  not  had  time 
to  develop.  Their  governments  and  citizens  were 
more  accustomed  to  a  paternal  policy  than  ours.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  leading  citizens  and  men  of  business 
took  the  matter  in  hand  and  have  continued  to  manage 
it.  What  would  have  happened  had  any  American 
city  been  turned  over  to  its  bankers  and  merchants 
and  manufacturers  to  do  with  it  as  they  chose?  They 
would  have  grabbed  every  franchise  in  sight,  stolen 
everything  not  nailed  down,  and  generally  exploited 
their  fellow-citizens  to  the  utmost,  to  swell  their  own 
private  fortunes.  That  is  precisely  what  they  have 
done,  so  far  as  they  were  able,  so  far  as  they  could 
control  city  governments.  But  the  business  men  of 
German  cities  did  differently ;  under  their  management 
a  policy  of  municipal  socialism  has  been  pushed  far. 
They  have  reversed  the  American  method,  which  is 
for  the  community  to  keep  and  operate  all  enterprises 
that  are  unprofitable  and  onerous,  and  turn  over  to  pri- 
vate parties  for  exploitation  everything  that  is  profit- 
able. The  German  cities  keep  the  profitable  enterprises 
for  the  community,  if  they  concern  the  community. 

The  housing  question  was  regarded  as  an  insepa- 


174  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

rable  part  of  the  development  of  a  German  city.  And 
so  it  was  not  left,  as  among  us,  to  private  enterprise 
and  haphazard  municipal  ordinances.  In  every  case 
they  have  done  what  only  a  single  American  city  has 
even  contemplated — of  course,  only  Washington  can 
be  meant — and  planned  the  town  for  generations  to 
come.  It  will  be  an  easy  task  in  future  years  to  pro- 
ject these  plans  to  any  desired  extent  and  preserve 
the  unity  of  design  as  the  town  grows.  Washington 
is  the  one  really  beautiful  city  in  America,  but  Ger- 
many abounds  in  beautiful  towns.  Usually  a  publit 
competition  has  preceded  the  adoption  of  a  plan,  to 
which  the  best  engineers  and  architects  have  contrib- 
uted their  ideas.  Once  a  choice  has  been  made  it  has 
been  adhered  to,  with  only  such  modifications  as  ex- 
perience has  suggested. 

As  already  intimated,  a  generation  ago  German  cit- 
ies were  no  more  ready  than  other  towns  to  house  the 
people  who  began  to  pour  into  them.  But  they  awoke 
to  the  situation ;  American  cities  continued  to  sleep. 
German  cities,  with  hardly  an  exception,  were  still  con- 
tained within  the  old  mediaeval  walls ;  the  streets  were 
narrow,  the  houses  small  and  unsanitary.  The  walls 
were  razed,  save  here  and  there  portions  preserved 
for  historic  association  or  picturesque  effect ;  the  moats 
were  filled;  and  these  spaces  were  turned  into  boule- 
vards, parks,  and  walks.  In  the  old  city  many  build- 
ings have  been  torn  down  and  rebuilt,  scrupulous  care 
being  taken  to  preserve  the  ancient  architectural 
forms ;  some  streets  have  been  widened,  and  the  whole 
much  improved.  But,  of  course,  the  greatest  effect 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  175 

has  been  obtained  in  the  extension  of  the  city  beyond 
the  old  walls  on  the  new  plans  adopted. 

While  private  enterprise  has  been  permitted  and  en- 
couraged to  undertake  as  much  as  it  chose,  there  has 
been  no  hesitation  to  make  the  city  itself  the  leader 
in  this  movement.  Ulm,  a  city  of  56,000  people  in 
Wurttemberg,  has  bought  up  land  so  extensively  that 
it  now  owns  80  per  cent,  of  the  area  of  the  town  and 
suburb's,  amounting  to  nearly  5,000  acres.  Out  of 
this  a  large  woodland  has  been  reserved  for  recreation. 
Industries  are  confined  to  certain  districts — something 
that  no  American  city  has  even  attempted  to  do.  The 
city  itself  has  built  175  houses,  and  leases  ground  for 
others  to  build  for  seventy  years,  agreeing  to  buy  back 
the  houses  at  the  expiration  of  the  lease  for  80  per 
cent,  of  their  cost.  As  municipal  ordinances  strictly 
control  the  type  of  house  to  be  erected,  this  is  a  safe 
offer  to  make.  Nor  is  Ulm  alone  in  such  enterprise; 
Munich  owns  23.7  per  cent,  of  the  property  within 
its  limits,  Leipzig  23.3  per  cent,  Strassburg  33.2,  Han- 
nover, 37.7.  Outside  the  city  limits  most  towns  own 
much  more  land  than  within;  Berlin,  for  example, 
owns  in  the  suburbs  more  than  twice  the  whole  city 
area,  and  Strassburg  almost  three  times. 

Frank furt-am-Main  is  one  of  the  most  progressive 
cities  of  Germany,  and  by  consequence  one  of  the  most 
beautiful.  The  municipality  owns  one-half  of  the  area 
within  its  limits,  and  3,800  acres  outside,  making  a 
total  of  16,600  acres.  Its  broad  streets,  scrupulously 
clean,  its  numerous  well-kept  parks,  make  it  an  ex- 
ceedingly attractive  town.  The  city  owns  and  oper- 


176  THE    GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

ates  its  street  railways,  electric  light  and  water  works, 
leaving  the  gas  supply  to  private  enterprise.  It  was 
the  first  German  city  to  tax  the  unearned  increment, 
but  most  other  cities  followed  its  example  and  in  1911 
the  principle  was  adopted  in  imperial  taxation.  The 
problem  of  municipal  finance  hardly  exists  for  Frank- 
furt, or  any  of  the  German  cities.  What  is  not  pro- 
duced by  regular  revenue  for  improvements  they  have 
had  no  difficulty  in  borrowing  on  bonds  at  a  low  inter- 
est rate.  Like  all  other  German  towns  situated  on 
rivers  or  seaports,  Frankfurt  owns  its  docks  and  har- 
bor facilities,  managed  in  harmony  with  the  imperial 
government,  which  controls  the  means  of  transporta- 
tion. 

Dusseldorf  may  be  taken  as  an  example  of  the 
smaller  cities  of  Germany,  not  so  much  visited  by 
tourists,  and  of  no  great  industrial  or  commercial  im- 
portance. This  town  operates  practically  all  municipal 
enterprises :  gas,  electric  light,  street  railways,  water. 
Lighting,  either  by  gas  or  electricity,  costs  less  than 
in  most  German  towns,  yet  a  handsome  revenue  is  de- 
rived from  this  source  for  public  purposes.  The  street 
railways  charge  a  fare  just  half  that  of  American 
lines,  and  are  profitable  at  that.  Cars  are  provided 
that  resemble  a  pullman  coach,  or  a  magnate's  private 
car,  more  than  the  miserable  contraptions  that  we 
Americans  submit  to  be  carried  in.  The  city  has  un- 
dertaken large  operations  in  land,  in  order  to  check 
private  speculation  and  keep  down  prices.  It  not  only 
erects  houses  for  workingmen,  but  has  established  a 
municipal  bank  and  pawnshop  for  their  benefit,  and 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  IJJ 

maintains  a  system  of  insurance  against  sickness,  acci- 
dent, and  old  age.  Many  of  these  things  have  no 
immediate  relation  to  the  matter  we  are  considering, 
the  housing  problem.  They  are  interesting,  however, 
as  showing  that,  in  the  experience  of  Diisseldorf,  the 
attempt  to  accomplish  one  kind  of  social  betterment 
is  very  likely  to  lead  to  another.  The  housing  prob- 
lem and  the  beautifying  of  the  city  mark  the  begin- 
ning, not  the  end,  of  the  modern  municipal  activity  of 
Diisseldorf.  It  has  done  somewhat  less  than  some 
others  in  constructing  garden  cities  in  the  suburbs, 
because  the  whole  town  has  been  transformed  into 
what  well  deserves  to  be  given  that  name.  There  is 
not  another  more  beautiful  city  in  Europe  to-day. 

With  straighter  streets,  wider  streets,  streets  less 
crowded  and  better  policed,  German  cities  have  better 
transit  facilities  than  American.  The  cars  make  less 
frequent  stops  and  run  much  faster  with  more  safety 
to  the  people  than  with  us.  The  parcels  post  also 
gives  great  aid  to  the  solution  of  the  housing  prob- 
lem, and  quite  as  much  to  reduce  the  high  cost  of  liv- 
ing. The  middleman  is  largely  eliminated :  direct 
from  producer  to  consumer  is  more  and  more  the  rule, 
especially  with  food  products.  The  public  market 
does  the  rest.  The  butcher  shop  and  the  grocery  store 
fill  a  small  place  in  the  life  of  a  German  town;  one 
may  travel  miles,  especially  in  the  suburbs,  and  never 
see  either.  Germany  has  entirely  solved  neither  the 
housing  problem  nor  the  living  problem,  but  she  has 
attacked  both  with  a  vigor  and  intelligence  that  con- 
trast painfully  with  our  sleepy  stupidity,  and  she  is  in 


178  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

a  fair  way  to  reach  passable  solutions  before  we  get 
waked  up  enough  to  make  any  real  effort. 

One  item  in  Germany's  procedure  is  instructive,  as 
a  lesson  in  regard  to  the  way  in  which  social  questions 
are  interlocked;  so  that  to  do  anything  of  value  has 
more  than  one  good  effect.  A  generation  ago  Bis- 
marck devised  a  system  of  workingmen's  insurances 
and  pensions,  as  he  openly  avowed,  to  "dish"  the 
Socialists.  He  effectually  dished,  not  the  Socialists, 
but  himself,  for  the  Socialist  vote  increased  thereafter 
more  rapidly  than  before.  But  the  system  was  not 
half  bad;  it  was,  of  course,  a  palliative,  and  slight  at 
that,  but  it  was  better  than  nothing,  and  so  far  as  it 
went  the  Socialists  could  not  and  did  not  object  to  it 
on  principle.  But,  after  thirty  years  or  so,  the  funds 
accumulated  for  that  purpose  became  an  embarrass- 
ment; it  was  necessary  to  find  some  safe  and  moder- 
ately profitable  investment  for  them.  There  is  no 
safer  investment  than  real  estate,  and  so  these  funds 
have  been  freely  used  to  solve  the  housing  problem. 
Model  tenements  have  been  erected  by  their  aid  and 
pay  a  fair  interest  on  the  capital  invested  in  them, 
which  can  be  used  to  pay  the  insurances  and  pensions 
that  fall  due.  It  is  said  that  one  of  our  insurance  cor- 
porations, the  Metropolitan  Life,  has  adopted  a  simi- 
lar method  of  investment,  advancing  money  for  erect- 
ing tenements,  controlling  the  type  of  building  and 
regulating  its  occupation,  thus  supplying  excellent 
homes  at  moderate  cost.  If  more  of  the  funds  of  life 
insurance  companies  were  invested  in  similar  manner, 
instead  of  loaned  for  gambling  on  the  stock  exchange, 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   THE   SLUM  179 

there  would  be  less  complaint  of  the  companies  and 
marked  advance  toward  solution  of  the  housing  prob- 
lem. 

VI 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  slum  ques- 
tion is  at  bottom  a  question  of  finance,  and  a  hint  has 
also  been  given  of  the  method  by  which  the  problem 
may  easily  be  solved.  German  cities  have  shown  us; 
some  of  the  newer  Canadian  communities  have  shown 
us.  So  long  as  the  chief  burden  of  taxation  falls  on 
improvements,  building  will  be  delayed  and  land  spec- 
ulation will  be  encouraged.  An  owner  of  an  unim- 
proved city  lot  can  now  hold  it,  while  the  city  builds 
walks  and  sewers  and  paves  streets,  for  which  he  usu- 
ally pays  only  a  relatively  small  tax,  until  the  rise  in 
value  of  his  property  satisfies  his  greed  and  he  is  will- 
ing to  sell  to  some  one  who  will  erect  a  building  upon 
it.  When  the  building  is  erected,  a  relatively  heavy 
tax  is  levied  on  it,  and  the  better  the  building  the 
heavier  the  tax.  We  thus  offer  a  high  inducement  to 
owners  and  builders  to  build  in  the  cheapest  and  flim- 
siest manner  possible,  and  to  maintain  an  old  building 
as  long  as  it  will  stand,  rather  than  pull  it  down  and 
erect  a  better.  When  we  become  socially  intelligent 
enough  to  remove  our  taxes  from  buildings  and  levy 
them  on  land  values,  we  shall  no  longer  be  guilty  of 
selecting  out  the  most  enterprising  and  thrifty  of  the 
people  and  fining  them  for  every  contribution  they 
make  to  our  progress  and  general  welfare. 


ISO  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

Taxing  the  unearned  increment,  besides  being  ethi- 
cally just,  is,  therefore,  socially  wise.1  As  this  incre- 
ment is  more  and  more  taken  for  public  use,  other 
forms  of  taxation  will  be  found  unnecessary.  Land 
speculation  will  be  first  lessened,  then  destroyed,  as 
the  motive  for  holding  unimproved  land  becomes  in- 
operative. The  builder  being  no  longer  penalized  for 
his  enterprise,  more  beautiful  and  durable  construction 
can  be  afforded  and  the  quality  of  buildings,  both  pub- 
lic and  private,  may  be  expected  to  rise  rapidly.  It 
will  probably  be  advisable  to  prescribe  a  minimum 
standard  of  construction,  but  builders  in  general  will 
often,  if  not  always,  find  it  profitable  to  exceed  this. 

The  slum  is  generally  regarded  as  a  problem  of  large 
cities  only;  and  for  convenience  it  has  been  so  treated 
in  this  discussion;  but  the  discussion  should  not  close 
without  at  least  an  intimation  that  this  assumption 
does  not  altogether  correspond  with  fact.  Cities  of 
the  second  and  third  classes  already  have  this  prob- 
lem to  deal  with,  and  their  future  growth  is  likely  to 
make  it  pressing.  Even  towns  of  25,000  population 
and  under  are  not  so  free  from  the  slum  problem  as 
they  may  complacently  think  themselves  to  be.  Not 
a  few  of  the  smaller  towns  have  had  a  painful  awaken- 

1  The  objection  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  value  land 
with  sufficient  accuracy  to  afford  a  basis  for  equitable  taxation 
is  shown  by  experience  to  be,  like  so  many  objections  to  so- 
cially progressive  measures,  quite  unfounded.  So  far  from  dif- 
ficult to  estimate  accurately,  land  values  are  the  easiest  of  all 
values  to  ascertain  with  accuracy.  The  census  of  1900  separately 
valued  farm  lands  and  improvements.  New  York,  Boston  and 
other  cities  have  made  valuations  of  the  land  within  their  limits. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE   SLUM  l8l 

ing  of  late  to  realization  that  there  are  shameful  hous- 
ing conditions  within  their  limits.  They  are  awaken- 
ing to  the  fact  that  unless  they  face  these  conditions 
and  at  once  provide  better  housing  they  will  soon  have 
to  contend  with  all  the  evils  of  the  great  cities,  on  a 
smaller  scale  to  be  sure,  but  the  same  in  quality.  Wise 
action  in  New  York  in  1830,  or  even  in  1850,  would 
have  prevented  that  city's  difficulties.  To-day  is  the 
day  of  salvation  for  the  smaller  towns. 

There  is  no  social  problem  in  which  Christian  people 
ought  to  be  more  deeply  interested  than  the  slum  prob- 
lem. There  is  no  problem  to  which  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  is  more  vitally  related.  For  the  home  is  the 
foundation  of  society,  and  in  the  slum  we  see  what 
capitalism  has  done  to  the  home.  The  progress  of  the 
Gospel  is  inseparably  bound  up  with  the  maintenance 
of  the  home.  A  Christian  society  is  under  straitest 
obligation,  for  its  own  preservation  and  progress,  to 
see  that  the  homes  of  all  its  members,  poor  as  well  as 
rich,  so  long  as  there  must  be  poor  and  rich,  are  made 
habitable.  To  neglect  this  is  social  suicide. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  PROBLEM    OF   VICE 


•"THE  oldest  profession  in  the  world"  is  no  longer 
a  profession  but  a  business.  It  has  always  been  pur- 
sued for  gain,  of  course,  but  the  gains  were  once 
small  and  accrued  to  the  scarlet  woman  herself.  Now 
vice  has  felt  the  influence  of  the  age  and  has  become 
commercialized;  and,  finally,  it  has  succumbed  to  the 
irresistible  tendency  and  has  become  a  trust.  We 
call  this  form  of  vice  the  "social  evil"  and  we  do 
well,  for  it  is  the  sin  of  society,  not  of  the  individual 
alone.  "The  wages  of  prostitution,"  says  George 
Bernard  Shaw  to  the  people  of  England,  "are  stitched 
into  your  buttonholes  and  into  your  blouse,  pasted  into 
your  matchboxes  and  your  boxes  of  pins,  stuffed  into 
your  mattress,  mixed  with  the  paint  on  your  walls, 
and  stuck  between  the  joints  of  your  water  pipes.  The 
very  glaze  on  your  basin  and  teacup  has  in  it  the  lead 
poison  that  you  offer  to  the  decent  woman  as  the  re- 
ward of  honest  labor,  while  the  procuress  is  offering 
chicken  and  champagne." 

We  call  these  poor  creatures  that  walk  our  streets 
offering  themselves  for  sale  "fallen  women,"  but  the 

182 


THE   PROBLEM    OF  VICE  183 

truth  is  that  the  whole  community  has  fallen  with 
them.  We  who  sit  smug  and  self-satisfied  at  our  vir- 
tuous firesides  are  partners  in  this  traffic;  we  are  en- 
joying the  rewards  of  a  system  of  which  they  are  an 
inseparable  part.  They  have  been  ground  into  the 
dirt  in  order  that  our  womenfolk  may  be  kept  spot- 
less. It  is  for  us,  therefore,  as  well  as  for  them,  to 
weep  and  repent  our  fault,  and  go  and  sin  no  more. 

There  are  people  who  will  deeply  resent  these  words 
as  they  read  them,  and  the  depth  of  their  resentment 
measures  the  necessity  for  speaking  such  words,  and 
even  harsher.  For  the  criminal  hypocrisy  of  the  moral 
part  of  the  comumnity  is  responsible  for  the  great  ex- 
tent of  this  frightful  evil.  Among  the  good  and  re- 
ligious people  of  this  world  there  is  a  vast  quantity 
of  what  Dickens  named  Podsnappery.  Mr.  Podsnap, 
it  will  be  remembered,  had  a  way  of  disposing  of  dis- 
agreeable facts  by  a  flourish  of  his  arm,  sweeping 
them  behind  him,  with :  "I  don't  want  to  know  about 
it;  I  don't  choose  to  discuss  it;  I  don't  admit  it."  The 
"good"  men  and  women,  and  even  the  bad  men  and 
women  who  would  be  thought  good,  have  insisted  that 
this  matter  should  never  be  mentioned  above  a  whis- 
per. Not  a  word  must  be  openly  spoken  or  written 
about  it — veiled  allusions  and  decorous  phrases  were 
the  utmost  admissible.  It  is  only  recently  that  it  has 
been  discovered  to  be  possible  to  discuss  the  problem  of 
vice  with  all  necessary  plainness,  yet  without  coarse- 
ness. 

This  policy  of  finger-on-lip  and  sh-h-h-h!  has  been 
tried  long  and  has  proved  a  complete  failure.  The  no- 


184  THE    GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

tion  that  women  and  young  people  must  be  kept  in  a 
state  of  blessed  innocence  (by  which  we  really  mean 
a  state  of  ignorance  that  is  often  far  from  blessed) 
and  permit  only  men,  and  "men  of  the  world"  at  that, 
to  know  the  facts,  is  so  at  variance  with  reality  as  to 
be  absurd  beyond  words.  When  our  women  and  our 
young  people  cannot  go  upon  our  streets,  cannot  read 
a  daily  newspaper,  without  having  the  facts  in  their 
grossest  form  thrust  upon  them,  why  keep  up  this 
vain  pretense  of  "innocence"  ?  Our  conduct  is  mere 
prudishness,  and  has  become  one  of  the  chief  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  solution  of  our  problem.  It  is  also  one 
of  the  things  upon  which  the  people  of  the  underworld 
chiefly  rely,  and  not  in  vain.  This  very  ignorance,  mis- 
called innocence,  is  one  cause  of  the  fall  of  thousands 
of  young  women  every  year.  If  they  knew  the  pitfalls 
that  surround  them  they  would  be  on  guard.  Turn 
on  the  light,  then;  only  vice  itself  has  anything  to  fear 
from  it. 

But  it  is  not  merely  the  hypocrisy  of  prudishness, 
it  is  the  hypocrisy  of  fear,  that  strives  to  put  the  ta- 
boo on  discussion.  Nearly  every  social  ill  from 
which  we  suffer  is  discovered  to  have  its  roots  in  capi- 
talism. If  investigation  and  discussion  should  make 
it  clear  that  vice  is  nothing  else  than  a  part  of  the  price 
that  the  great  multitudes  of  toilers  are  paying  to  main- 
tain in  luxury  an  exploiting  class,  a  tremendous  impulse 
will  be  given  to  the  demand  that  capitalism  shall  cease. 
Realizing  this,  the  capitalistic  class  and  all  its  adhe- 
rents strive  to  hide  from  view  the  Fores  of  society  for 
which  it  is  responsible,  and  so  far  as  possible  to  deny 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  185 

their  very  existence.  And  often  a  red  herring  is  drawn 
across  the  trail  by  fussy  "investigations"  by  "commis- 
sions" that  do  not  investigate,  and  elaborate  "reports" 
that  carefully  avoid  telling  anything  but  surface  facts. 
One  of  the  richest  of  our  younger  multi-millionaires 
has  financed  a  pretentious  "scientific"  investigation; 
and  every  now  and  then  the  laboring  mountains  bring 
forth  a  ridiculous  mouse. 

If  the  inevitable  penalties  of  vice  fell  only  upon  the 
guilty  we  might  possibly  continue  to  look  on  with  self- 
ish equanimity  and  see  the  guilty  suffer.  But  society 
has  awakened  to  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  that  no  man 
liveth  to  himself,  that  if  one  member  suffers  all  the 
members  suffer  with  him.  Science  confirms  Scripture 
that  the  sins  of  the  guilty  are  often  visited  on  the 
innocent.  Not  only  the  women  who  voluntarily 
choose  vice  instead  of  virtue  are  dragged  down  to  hell, 
but  the  daughters  of  our  sheltered  homes  become  the 
victims  of  those  foul  beasts  of  prey,  the  recruiting  of- 
ficers of  the  underworld.  Nobody  can  longer  be  sure 
that  his  own  family  is  immune  from  this  frightful 
curse.  Not  only  do  men  who  love  impurity  more  than 
purity  pay  the  cost  of  their  indulgence  in  venereal  dis- 
ease, but  they  become  sources  of  infection  to  innocent 
women  and  children.  Not  only  is  the  underworld 
putrid  with  these  diseases,  but  it  is  rapidly  passing  on 
the  infection  to  the  upper  world.  Careful  examina- 
tions and  estimates  by  the  best  qualified  men  of  science 
warrant  the  belief  that  twelve  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
population  of  London  and  Berlin  are  afflicted  with 
syphilis,  and  fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  population  of 


1 86  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

Paris.  Our  great  cities  are  probably  no  better  and  pos- 
sibly worse.  In  sheer  self-defense,  if  it  would  avoid 
universal  contamination  of  blood,  society  is  now 
forced  to  deal  with  this  problem  more  effectively  than 
it  has  ever  yet  dreamed  of  doing. 

Our  governments,  Federal  and  State,  expend  mil- 
lions every  year  in  exterminating  insect  pests  that 
threaten  the  farmer's  crop,  and  other  millions  in  the 
prevention  and  cure  of  diseases  that  attack  the  farm- 
er's stock.  Research  stations  and  agricultural  colleges 
are  studying  these  problems  and  are  rapidly  finding  so- 
lutions for  them.  This  is  part  of  our  campaign  of  con- 
servation, and  is  mentioned  by  way  of  praise,  not  of 
criticism.  Criticism  should  be  directed  to  another 
point:  for  this  problem  of  vice  that  vitally  concerns 
the  interests  of  society,  that  attacks  the  very  root  of 
social  institutions,  the  family,  that  threatens  the  life 
and  happiness  of  millions  of  our  people — for  this  gov- 
ernments have  no  thought,  spend  no  money.  What 
has  been  accomplished  thus  far  has  been  due  to  private 
enterprise ;  and,  naturally,  it  has  only  skimmed  the  sur- 
face of  things.  Investigations  financed  by  the  very 
class  that  maintains  the  evil  cannot  be  expected  to 
bring  forth  truth,  at  least  not  the  whole  truth.  Yet, 
superficial  as  the  investigations  have  been,  and  feebly 
palliative  as  are  the  remedies  proposed,  we  have 
learned  much — all  that  we  really  need  to  know  for 
immediate  effective  action. 

We  have  learned,  to  begin  with,  that  the  condition 
society  has  to  face  is  this:  Vice  of  all  kinds,  and 
especially  sexual  vice,  the  most  formidable  of  all,  is 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   VICE  1 87 

a  great  commercial  system,  in  which  large  capital  is 
invested,  and  from  which  immense  revenues  are  de- 
rived. It  is  not  only  vice  but  greed  that  we  have  to 
fight.  Mr.  Samuel  H.  London,  a  government  vice  in- 
vestigator, estimates  that  there  are  63,000  white  slaves, 
whose  "earnings"  are  $188,000,000  annually.  The 
Rockefeller  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene,  in  its  first  re- 
port of  its  work  during  1912,  gives,  as  a  conservative 
estimate  of  the  number  of  prostitutes  in  the  borough 
of  Manhattan,  15,000;  and  says  that  a  large  number 
of  resorts  are  operated  as  a  trust  or  "combine,"  con- 
trolled by  a  group  of  about  fifteen  men.  The  same 
facts,  on  a  smaller  scale,  would  be  discovered  by  sim- 
ilar investigation  of  any  of  our  large  cities,  and  to  a 
considerable  degree  they  exist  in  our  smaller  towns. 
We  need  no  exact,  scientific  statistics  to  convince  us 
of  the  extent  and  enormity  of  the  evil. 

We  have  also  learned  that  in  every  American  city 
of  any  considerable  size,  and  in  most  of  the  smaller 
towns  as  well,  there  is  a  secret  league  between  the 
municipal  authorities  and  those  who  conduct  this  vile 
business.  Vice  is  under  the  ban  of  the  law,  and  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  police  to  suppress  it.  Instead  of 
making  any  effort  to  do  so  they  give  the  business  their 
protection,  in  return  for  a  regular  tax  levied  by  them 
and  as  regularly  paid.  From  this  "graft"  police  of- 
ficials heap  up  fortunes,  while  a  considerable  part  goes 
to  maintain  the  corrupt  political  machines  of  our  great 
cities.  Gambling,  another  form  of  vice,  is  commercial- 
ized in  a  similar  way  and  receives  like  protection.  The 
saloon  owes  its  ability  to  violate  with  impunity  all 


1 88  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

license  laws  to  the  same  source.  All  these  forces  of 
evil  are  so  interlocked  and  so  intrenched  within  our 
present  municipal  systems  and  laws  as  to  be  impreg- 
nable for  the  present.  Society  is  powerless  to  deal 
with  them  until  it  can  effect  fundamental  reforms  in 
government.  Every  little  while  there  is  an  "exposure" 
with  great  display  of  "scare  heads"  in  the  newspapers; 
but  it  exposes  nothing  that  every  intelligent  person  did 
not  know  before,  and  it  leads  to  nothing.  Once  in  a 
decade  or  so  there  is  some  notorious  crime,  like  the 
Rosenthal  murder,  which  brings  the  underworld  into 
the  lime  light  for  a  few  weeks,  and  may  lead  to  a 
brief  moral  spasm  in  the  community,  and  may  even 
result  in  the  conviction  of  a  criminal  or  two.  But  none 
of  these  things  affects  vice  in  any  appreciable  degree. 
It  does  not  make  a  dent  in  the  system.  Men  may 
come  and  men  may  go,  but  the  system  goes  on  forever. 
And  it  will  go  on  forever,  unless  society — which 
means  all  of  us — ceases  its  fooling  with  the  symptoms 
of  this  social  disease  and  goes  to  the  root  of  the  mat- 
ter, seeks  out  the  cause  and  removes  it.  This  is  a  per- 
fectly simple  thing  to  do,  though  very  difficult.  For 
there  is  practical  unanimity  among  investigators  of  our 
social  conditions,  so  far  as  they  have  courage  to  speak 
out,  that  poverty  is  the  great  cause  of  sexual  vice,  as 
it  exists  among  us  to-day.  Young  girls  are  not  in- 
herently vicious,  and  very  few  of  them  choose  this 
life  of  shame  because  they  love  it.  They  are  literally 
driven  to  it,  or  tempted  beyond  their  power  of  re- 
sistance, or  decoyed  and  forced  into  it.  The  greed 
of  those  who  have  commercialized  the  business  and 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   VICE  189 

the  need  of  those  who  enter  it  are  the  two  grand  fac- 
tors of  our  problem,  beside  which  any  others  are 
negligible. 

II 

Possibly  it  is  too  cavalier  a  disposal  of  the  question 
of  the  cause  of  vice  to  attribute  it  so  exclusively  to 
poverty.  There  is  no  intent  to  deny  that  other  causes 
contribute  to  swell  an  evil  of  which  poverty  is  the 
fundamental  cause.  Ignorance  ranks  high  among 
these  contributory  causes,  and  its  ill  effects  are  not 
limited  to  the  encouragement  that  it  gives  to  all  forms 
of  harmful  indulgence.  The  price  that  society  is  pay- 
ing for  ignorance  is  even  greater  than  the  price  paid 
for  vice.  On  the  theory  that  it  is  not  "nice"  or 
"proper"  for  young  people  to  know  the  fundamental 
facts  of  sex,  the  origin  of  life,  the  dangers  of  vice, 
they  have  been  kept  in  as  much  ignorance  as  possible. 
It  has  not  been  possible  to  keep  them  in  total  igno- 
rance, but  much  of  the  knowledge  that  they  manage 
surreptitiously  to  acquire  is  warped  and  misleading. 
In  our  anxiety  that  they  should  not  be  given  right 
information  we  have  brought  it  about  that  they  have 
obtained  much  misinformation.  We  ought  to  be  proud 
of  our  achievement! 

On  the  contrary,  we  are  becoming  somewhat 
ashamed  of  it,  and  are  beginning  to  recognize  the 
necessity  of  sex  education  and  sex  hygiene.  As  a 
consequence  of  this  awakening  it  has  been  seriously 
proposed  that  elementary  instruction  should  be  given 


THE   GOSPEL   OP   JESUS 

in  our  public  schools,  and  a  few  tentative  experiments 
have  been  made  in  that  direction.  The  ideal  thing 
would,  of  course,  be  instruction  by  parents;  but  since 
so  many  parents  are  restrained  by  a  false  sense  of 
shame  from  performing  this  duty,  and  since  so  many 
others  are  incompetent  to  perform  it,  and  since  in  any 
case  so  many  children  will  certainly  fail  to  receive  any 
parental  instruction,  some  provision  will  eventually 
have  to  be  made  in  public  education.  The  difficulty 
at  present  is  that  few  teachers  have  knowledge  and 
training  that  fit  them  to  give  such  instruction.  And 
in  country  districts,  where  teachers  are  mainly  girls 
only  just  out  of  school  themselves,  it  can  hardly  be 
considered  desirable  that  they  should  undertake  such 
work.  It  cannot  be  said  that  any  satisfactory  solution 
of  this  part  of  our  problem  is  yet  in  sight,  but  we  shall 
doubtless  find  one  if  we  search  with  determination  to 
find. 

Another  contributing  cause  of  the  extensive  preva- 
lence of  vice  is  the  double  standard  of  morals.  Dr. 
Homer  Clark  Bennett  has  put  this  very  cleverly  in 
some  verses,  which,  if  not  great  poetry,  are  great 
sense : 

If  the  prodigal  boy  had  been  a  girl, 

How  would  the  story  have  run? 
Would  the  fatted  calf  have  been  killed  as  quick 

For  the  daughter  as  for  the  son? 
Would  the  welcome  back  have  been  the  same; 

Would  the  ring  and  shoes  and  all, 
With  the  robe,  been  given  a  daughter 

Had  she  been  the  one  to  fall? 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  1 9! 

The  Prodigal  Son  is  not  only  a  parable  with  a  deep 
religious  teaching,  but  it  is  a  story  true  to  life  in  every 
detail.  Not  even  Jesus  could  have  told  such  a  story  of 
a  Prodigal  Daughter,  for  there  never  was  an  age  in 
which  it  would  have  been  true  to  life.  But  this  is 
not  to  say  that  Jesus  would  not  have  approved  the 
same  treatment  for  the  daughter  as  for  the  son;  and 
in  giving  different  treatment  to  the  sexes  we  set  at 
naught  the  spirit,  if  not  the  letter,  of  all  his  ethical 
teaching.  But  it  is  not  so  much  the  abstract  ethical 
character  of  our  double  standard  with  which  we  are 
just  now  concerned  as  with  its  social  consequences. 
Our  double  standard,  with  its  stern  penalties  for  wom- 
en and  its  easy  condoning  of  the  sins  of  men,  does 
little  to  restrain  women,  but  much  to  encourage  men  to 
vice.  A  tremendous  obstacle  to  any  real  progress  in 
social  purity  is  the  eagerness  of  "good"  mothers  to 
secure  as  husbands  for  their  daughters  young  men 
who  are  known  to  be  vicious,  and  the  willingness  of 
fathers  to  stand  by  and  see  such  sacrifice  without  pro- 
test. The  social  ostracism  of  the  vicious  of  both  sexes 
would  be  a  deadly  weapon  against  the  powers  of  the 
underworld.  We  need  a  social  ethic  that  will  no  more 
tolerate  "sowing  of  wild  oats"  by  a  young  man  than 
by  a  young  woman.  It  is  not  a  double  standard  of 
morality  that  now  proclaims  the  contrary,  but  a  double 
standard  of  immorality. 

But,  after  recognizing  all  these  contributory  causes, 
we  still  come  back  to  poverty  as  the  prime  cause  of 
vice.  "Poverty"  is,  to  be  sure,  a  term  of  indefinite 
connotations.  If  it  is  limited  to  actual  suffering — to 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

real,  acute  hunger  and  cold  and  nakedness — it  could 
not  be  said  to  be  the  chief  cause  of  anything.  Com- 
paratively few  are  led  or  driven  into  a  vicious  or 
criminal  life  by  the  pressure  of  bitter  want.  "Poverty" 
may  be  defined  in  social  terms  as  a  return  for  one's 
utmost  service  as  a  worker  that  is  insufficient  for  a 
decent  and  comfortable  living.  So  long  as  those  who 
organize  the  business  of  prostitution  pay  high  wages, 
while  those  who  organize  ordinary  "respectable"  busi- 
ness pay  low  wages,  there  will  exist  a  social  condition 
making  prostitution  inevitable.  What  is  true  in  the 
large  is  equally  true  of  individual  cases.  The  poor 
young  girl,  working  hard  for  a  pittance,  longing  for 
the  leisure,  the  finery,  the  pleasure  of  her  more  fortu- 
nate sisters,  and  the  rich  young  man  ready  to  give  her 
all  these  things  in  exchange  for  herself,  are  a  combina- 
tion fatal  to  womanly  virtue  and  social  well-being. 
Every  form  of  vice  and  most  forms  of  crime  depend 
on  the  presentation  to  a  weak  individual  of  a  strong 
temptation,  to  him  practically  irresistible,  by  some  one 
who  profits  personally  or  financially  through  the  main- 
tenance of  that  temptation.  Vice  could  not  exist  with- 
out constantly  new  recruits;  the  saloon  could  not  be 
maintained  but  by  the  continual  creation  of  new  appe- 
tite for  drink.  We  have  been  attempting  to  solve  the 
problem  by  dealing  with  the  weak  individual  who  falls, 
by  trying  to  reform  magdalens  and  drunkards.  We 
must  resolutely  attack  the  man  or  the  organization  that 
maintains  the  temptation  if  we  expect  any  valuable 
social  results. 

The  relation  of  wages  to  living  is  therefore  funda- 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  193 

mental  in  this  problem.  Recent  investigations  have 
done  much  to  establish  the  facts  beyond  reasonable 
question.  According  to  the  Consumers'  League  of 
New  York,  a  girl  who  must  support  herself  in  that 
city  cannot  do  so  decently  on  a  wage  less  than  $9  a 
week.1  The  Philadelphia  League  names  $8  as  the 
standard  for  that  city.  The  great  majority  of  workers 
in  factories  and  department  stores  in  these  two  cities 
receive  a  maximum  wage  less  than  this  minimum  sum ; 
77  per  cent,  of  workers  in  department  stores  receive 
less  than  $8  a  week;  and  the  average  pay  of  women 
in  factories  is  $4.62  for  the  first  year  and  $5.34  the 
second,  while  40  per  cent,  receive  less  than  $6.  It 
takes  eight  years  for  the  average  store  employee  to 
reach  a  living  wage,  and  ten  years  for  a  factory  em- 
ployee. These  figures  have  been  published  far  and 
wide  and  never  challenged ;  so  their  correctness  may  be 
taken  as  established.  It  follows,  therefore,  that,  unless 
they  live  at  home  and  only  partly  support  themselves, 
the  wages  of  women  workers  are  below  a  decent  living 
standard.  The  majority  receive  little  more  than  half 
a  living  wage,  and  are  consequently  in  a  condition  of 
constant  poverty. 

Nothing  has  done  more,  probably,  to  open  the  eyes 
of  the  American  people  to  the  real  condition  of  women 
workers  than  the  investigation  into  the  Chicago  de- 
partment stores  conducted  by  the  committee  of  the 

1  Mrs.  Frederick  Nathan,  of  the  New  York  Consumers' 
League,  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  60  per  cent,  of  the 
saleswomen  over  sixteen  years  of  age  in  New  York  stores  re- 
ceive less  than  $6.50  a  week. 


194  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Illinois  Senate  in  the  spring  in  1913.  These  stores 
are  among  the  largest  and  best  managed  in  our  coun- 
try. They  are  owned  and  conducted  by  men  who  have 
considerable  repute  as  "philanthropists" — they  are  lib- 
eral contributors  to  local  charities,  to  investigations  of 
the  "white  slave"  traffic,  and  the  like.  That  they  and 
their  business  methods  had  any  relation  to  social  prob- 
lems seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  them.  The  Com- 
mittee did  not  probe  far  without  discovering  that  these 
department  and  mail  order  stores  were  making  enor- 
mous profits,  yet  paid  many  of  their  girl  employees 
less  than  a  living  wage.  The  head  of  one  of  the 
largest  establishments  admitted  that  the  profits  of  his 
business  amounted  to  $12,000,000  the  preceding  year, 
and  also  admitted  that  he  employed  119  girls  at  $5  a 
week,  but  added  that  1,465  received  not  less  than  $8  a 
week.  Of  course  he  could  see  no  relation  between  low 
wages  and  prostitution. 

Another  store  owner,  who  refused  to  state  his  prof- 
its but  virtually  admitted  that  they  ran  into  millions, 
scouted  the  suggestion  that  low  wages  could  have  any 
relation  to  vice.  He  maintained  that  $8  a  week  was 
ample  to  support  a  girl  in  comfort  in  Chicago,  but  on 
being  given  pencil  and  paper  and  asked  to  make  out 
a  budget  this  was  the  best  that  he  could  produce: 
Outer  clothing,  $i ;  shoes,  hats,  underwear,  $i ;  laun- 
dry, 25  cents;  room  and  board,  $4;  car  fare,  60  cents; 
luncheon,  70  cents;  physician  and  dentist,  60  cents; 
church,  10  cents — total  $8.25.  A  little  thought  will 
show  anybody  how  absurd  is  the  idea  that  a  girl  who 
has  this  liberal  wage  could  be  tempted  by  the  induce- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   VICE  195 

ments  offered  by  a  vicious  life,  its  specious  promise 
of  ease  and  luxury.  Think  of  the  palatial  apartment 
and  sumptuous  meals  she  can  enjoy  for  $4  a  week, 
and  the  luxurious  luncheons  she  can  have  for  70  cents 
a  week,  not  to  mention  the  magnificent  clothes  and 
glittering  jewels  that  she  can  buy  for  $i !  How  ridic- 
ulous that  she  should  think  of  surrendering  all  this, 
together  with  the  privilege  of  standing  every  day  be- 
hind a  counter,  where  she  is  scolded  by  impatient  buy- 
ers and  lordly  floor-walkers,  and  ogled  by  silly  dudes 
and  fined  by  the  head  of  her  department  for  the  slight- 
est offense,  until  her  nominal  pay  of  $8  becomes  $6.42 
in  her  pay  envelope.  Why  should  she  listen  to  the 
siren  voice?  Why,  indeed! 


Ill 


That  the  causes  of  vice  are  mainly  economic  and 
therefore  demand  an  economic  remedy  is  sufficiently 
obvious.  The  one  that  has  been  suggested,  the  only 
one  that  may  be  said  to  be  under  immediate  considera- 
tion, is  the  minimum  wage,  the  probable  effect  of 
which  measure  on  women's  economic  status  has  al- 
ready been  discussed.  We  need  only  repeat  that  this 
is  at  best  a  slight  palliative,  a  mere  tinkering  with  sur- 
face facts.  The  Evening  Post  of  New  York  said  not 
long  ago  with  regard  to  such  experimentation  with 
partial  remedies :  "If  the  fact  of  gross  inequality  of 
fortune,  the  fact  that  the  rich  might  easily  part  with 
their  superfluity  and  give  it  to  the  poor,  were  to  be 


196  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

accepted  as  a  reason  for  compelling  such  redistribu- 
tion, the  process  could  not  stop  with  a  little  thing  like 
a  pitiful  minimum  wage  for  women.  It  would  neces- 
sarily mean  a  complete  reconstruction  of  the  whole 
economic  and  social  system."  This  is  quite  correct. 
Nothing  less  than  such  a  reconstruction  of  our  social 
and  economic  system  as  will  secure  the  abolition  of 
poverty  can  be  reasonably  expected  to  cure  any  of  our 
social  evils,  and  especially  the  evil  of  prostitution. 
Critics  of  socialism  often  pronounce  it  an  immoral  sys- 
tem, but  it  should  be  given  the  praise  of  seeking  to 
stop  the  greatest  immorality  in  existence,  the  sale  of 
women's  bodies,  by  making  women  economically  in- 
dependent. It  is  capitalism  that  is  immoral,  in  that 
it  makes  this  cruel  and  wicked  business  inevitable. 

The  fair-minded  employer  should  welcome  every 
step  toward  economic  justice  to  women,  such  as  the 
minimum  wage  law.  In  the  present  system,  wages  are 
adjusted,  not  to  the  earning  power  of  women,  but  to 
the  least  wage  upon  which  life  can  be  supported.  The 
wage-scale  in  any  line  of  business  is  practically  fixed 
by  the  meanest,  least  scrupulous  competitor.  What  he 
pays  others  must  pay  or  be  undersold,  though  they 
might  gladly  pay  more.  The  minimum  wage  makes 
this  extreme  exploitation  unlawful,  and  compels  the 
unscrupulous  employer  to  act  as  if  he  had  some  de- 
cent scruples.  This  gives  the  better  employers  their 
chance  to  treat  their  workers  with  a  greater  measure 
of  justice  and  yet  not  incur  danger  of  bankruptcy. 

No  one  can  study  the  conditions  in  which  the  girl 
workers  of  our  cities  live  and  labor  without  an  increas- 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  197 

ing  sense  of  the  fact  that  the  cure  of  poverty  must 
precede  the  cure  of  vice.  Here  is  where  the  problem 
of  the  slum  impinges  on  the  problem  of  vice.  Many 
forms  of  industry  are  carried  on  in  tenement  houses, 
besides  those  that  the  law  has  undertaken  to  prevent. 
The  manufacture  of  artificial  flowers  is  one  of  these, 
and  young  girls  often  work  far  into  the  night  at  this 
occupation.  In  the  crowded  tenements  it  is  difficult  to 
observe  the  decencies  of  life;  and  their  bare,  cheerless 
life  of  incessant  labor  becomes  abhorrent  to  such  girls. 
Their  amusements  are  few,  the  dance  hall  and  the 
moving  picture  show  have  few  rivals.  These  are  the 
recruiting  places  of  vice,  the  haunts  of  cadets  and  pro- 
curesses, and  the  result  can  be  easily  foreseen.  Pov- 
erty and  the  life  that  it  compels  have  weakened  the 
moral  fiber  of  many  young  girls,  and  the  allurements 
of  a  life  that  is  speciously  presented  to  them  as  one  of 
ease  and  pleasure  prove  too  great  for  their  powers  of 
resistance.  Even  so,  many  of  them  do  resist,  and  have 
to  be  drugged  or  otherwise  forced  into  a  life  that  they 
would  never  voluntarily  enter. 

The  cure  of  poverty  will  depend  to  a  great  extent 
on  the  raising  of  the  standard  of  efficiency  among  girl 
workers.  At  present  49  per  cent,  of  girls  who  are  com- 
pelled to  work  go  into  factories,  and  only  one  per  cent, 
into  skilled  trades.  Employers  who  can  see  beyond 
the  weekly  pay  roll  are  now  aware  that  the  low  wages 
paid  to  inexperienced  and  unskilled  are  the  highest 
wages  of  all,  measured  by  the  sales  cost,  which  is  the 
only  scientific  measurement.  The  cheapest  wages  are 
the  highest.  Employers  are  looking  for  a  way  to  elimi- 


198  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

nate  inefficient  workers ;  the  surest,  as  well  as  the  most 
profitable,  way  to  eliminate  the  inefficient  is  to  make 
all  workers  efficient.  We  are  now  revolving  in  a  vi- 
cious circle,  from  which  the  capitalistic  system  offers 
no  way  of  escape :  inefficiency  produces  poverty  and 
poverty  in  turn  produces  greater  inefficiency. 

But  would  the  abolition  of  poverty  be  really  effective 
as  a  remedy  for  social  vice?  Does  it  not,  after  all, 
depend  for  its  existence  on  a  human  passion  and  a 
human  weakness  quite  unconnected  with  poverty  ?  No 
doubt  poverty  is  not  the  sole  cause  of  sexual  immo- 
rality, for  that  has  existed  in  all  forms  of  society  for 
ages,  and  will  probably  continue  in  some  form  for  ages 
to  come.  The  abolition  of  poverty  would  not  abolish 
sexual  immorality.  It  would  reduce  sexual  immorality 
to  sporadic  cases,  individual  moral  aberrations — such 
as  are  found,  for  example,  in  a  rural  community  where 
all  the  people  are  substantially  on  the  same  economic 
level ;  such  as  are  found  among  the  rich,  who  are  like- 
wise economic  equals.  The  difference  would  be  this: 
women  would  continue  sometimes  to  give  themselves 
to  those  whom  they  loved,  without  the  sanction  of 
legal  marriage,  but  they  would  not  sell  themselves 
promiscuously.  Sexual  immorality  would  continue, 
but  prostitution  would  disappear,  especially  the  com- 
mercial forms  of  prostitution.  Vice  would  be  a  per- 
sonal error,  it  would  no  longer  be  a  great  commercial 
enterprise. 

The  sexual  impulse  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the 
strongest  factors  of  human  nature,  and  any  scheme 
of  social  reform  that  ignores  it  is  doomed  to  failure. 


tHE   PROBLEM    OF   VICE 

But  marriage,  whether  we  regard  it  as  a  divine  insti- 
tution or  as  merely  human  and  social,  is  the  normal 
provision  and  the  sufficient  provision  for  satisfaction 
of  the  sexual  impulse,  in  its  highest  forms  equally 
with  the  lowest.  Vice  is  the  perverted  satisfaction  of 
the  lowest.  This  perversion  is  powerfully  stimulated 
by  anything  that  prevents  normal  satisfaction.  Pov- 
erty, which  forbids  many  thousands  of  adult  men  and 
women  to  marry,  and  compels  other  thousands  to  post- 
pone marriage  until  middle  age,  is  a  direct  stimulus 
to  vice  the  force  of  which  can  hardly  be  exaggerated. 
A  standing  army  and  navy  is  a  standing  invitation  to 
vice.  Enlisted  men  are  practically  all  celibates,  and 
the  teaching  of  history  is  plain  that  celibacy  on  a  large 
scale  means  sexual  vice  to  an  alarming  degree.  Part 
of  the  price  we  pay  for  our  army  and  navy  is  the 
degradation  of  American  womanhood.  A  monastery, 
or  any  organization  that  forbids  marriage  or  makes 
it  practically  impossible,  has  always  been  a  hot-bed  of 
vice.  A  society  in  which  there  are  many  thousands  of 
men  and  women  debarred  by  poverty  from  marriage 
as  inevitably  produces  prostitution  as  a  match  pro- 
duces a  blaze.  The  demand  creates  a  supply,  and  the 
supply  stimulates  the  demand,  and  so  the  evil  grows, 
even  without  any  commercialization.  An  economic 
state  that  would  make  early  marriage  possible  is  the 
first  condition  of  eradicating  vice;  the  effort  is  hope- 
less otherwise. 

But  even  before  the  abolition  of  poverty  and  the 
relative  abolition  of  vice  we  can  do  a  great  deal  toward 
reducing1  this  social  evil  to  much  smaller  dimensions. 


2OO  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

It  is  the  system,  the  commercialization  of  vice,  the 
Trust,  that  greatly  aggravates  the  evil.  An  ethical 
evil  must  be  opposed  by  ethical  means;  an  economic 
condition  demands  an  economic  remedy;  but  a  busi- 
ness organization  may  be  destroyed  by  law.  We  must 
adapt  our  remedies  to  the  things  to  be  reformed  or 
abolished.  We  cannot  break  up  a  vice  trust  by  ethical 
measures,  and  economic  remedies  are  too  slow-acting. 
We  need,  and  we  have  a  right  to  expect,  some  immedi- 
ate results. 

This  is  why  the  remedy  hitherto  attempted  by  the 
"good"  element  of  the  community  has  been  so  ineffec- 
tive. Christians  have  applied  the  old  individual  idea 
of  the  Gospel  to  this  problem,  and,  in  rescue  work, 
Magdalens'  Homes,  and  missions  in  the  slums  have 
sought  to  reclaim  these  fallen  women.  The  work  has 
been  successful  in  this  sense,  that  thousands  have  been 
reclaimed;  and,  if  there  is  joy  in  heaven  among  the 
angels  over  one  sinner  that  repents,  this  work  must 
have  caused  great  joy  in  heaven.  But  it  has  produced 
little  result  on  earth.  For  every  soul  rescued,  a  dozen, 
a  hundred,  fresh  recruits  have  been  added  to  the  ranks 
of  the  fallen.  If  firemen  were  playing  on  a  fire  with 
one  stream  of  water  while  a  dozen  streams  of  oil 
were  turned  on  by  others,  how  long  would  it  take  to 
put  out  the  fire  ?  Does  it  not  become  plainer  every  day 
that  this  work  of  rescuing  individuals  is  to  approach 
the  problem  of  vice  from  the  wrong  side  and  to  waste 
effort  in  a  labor  beside  which  that  of  Sisyphus  was 
pleasant  exercise?  The  only  hope  of  solution  lies,  not 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  2OI 

in  rescuing  women  after  they  have  fallen,  but  in  pre- 
venting their  fall. 

Not  all  of  the  vice  that  poverty  causes  goes  by  that 
name ;  much  of  it  is  dignified  by  the  title  of  Christian 
marriage.  When  a  woman  sells  herself,  not  to  many 
men,  but  to  one  man,  for  the  sake  of  a  home,  of  sup- 
port, of  ease  and  luxury,  not  the  grace  of  holy  altar 
and  the  blessing  of  priest  and  book  can  make  the  trans- 
action anything  else  than  unethical  and  vicious.  Yet 
this  kind  of  sale,  this  form  of  vice,  society  pronounces 
perfectly  "respectable."  Our  social  arrangements  vir- 
tually compel  the  majority  of  women  to  trade  on  their 
sex,  and  to  make  the  best  bargain  for  themselves  pos- 
sible. A  woman  is  said  to  have  married  well  when 
she  gets  a  good  price  for  herself,  in  money  and  what 
money  will  bring.  But  where  this  is  the  sole  motive, 
as  it  so  often  is,  a  woman  does  not  become  a  man's 
wife — she  becomes  his  mistress,  in  a  way  that  law  and 
social  custom  approve. 

All  our  terminology  of  marriage  reflects  this  vicious 
and  degrading  fact.  The  law  says  that  a  man  must 
"support"  his  wife,  and  when  a  woman  marries  she 
expects  to  be  "supported."  No  idea  of  an  equal  part- 
nership, to  which  the  woman  contributes  as  much  as 
the  man,  is  recognized  either  in  law  or  in  our  verbal 
usage.  The  woman  is  an  economic  dependent  on  the 
man  she  marries,  as  she  has  been  on  her  father  before 
marriage;  and  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  the  law 
and  the  language  correspond  to  the  fact.  Because  of 
this  economic  dependence,  women  have  for  generations 
been  compelled  to  develop  to  the  utmost  and  to  make 


2O2  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

most  skilful  use  of  their  sexual  attractions,  to  induce 
some  man  to  desire  some  woman  enough  to  under- 
take her  support.  That  explains  the  provocativeness 
of  dress  and  manner  found  so  widely  among  women 
of  all  classes ;  this  is  their  trade,  the  only  one  to  which 
most  of  them  have  ever  been  bred :  to  catch  a  husband. 
It  is  horrible  and  vicious  and  depraved  and  "virtuous." 
I  am  writing  almost  coarsely  about  this  thing ;  I  ad- 
mit it;  I  deplore  it;  for  I  am  choosing  as  decorous 
words  as  I  can  find  to  describe  a  thing  so  essentially 
coarse  that  it  is  a  wonder  the  very  ink  does  not  blush. 
And  yet  who  will  venture  to  deny  that  the  thing  de- 
scribed is  of  daily  occurrence,  and  who  will  accuse  me 
of  incorrectly  describing  it?  So  long  as  her  sex  con- 
tinues to  be  her  one  commercial  asset  a  woman  cannot 
fairly  be  blamed  for  making  the  most  of  it.  It  is  so- 
ciety that  must  shoulder  the  blame  of  keeping  her  in 
this  state  of  economic  dependence.  It  is  society  that 
must  undertake  to  make  impossible  such  unions  as 
are  now  so  common,  by  assuring  women  such  eco- 
nomic independence  as  will  make  it  possible  for  every 
woman  to  give  herself  to  the  man  whom  she  loves, 
and  unnecessary  to  sell  herself  to  a  man  whom  she 
does  not  love.  At  present  the  so-called  "good"  woman 
is  driven  by  the  same  economic  necessity  as  her 
"fallen"  sister  to  trade  on  her  sex. 


Ill 

There  are  three  practical  ways  of  dealing  with  so- 
cial vice.     The  first  is  indifference,  the  method  of  the 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   VICE  2O3 

Greco-Roman  world  and  of  the  heathen  world  to-day. 
This  is  practically  our  method  also,  since  for  the  most 
part  we  simply  let  things  drift,  shut  our  eyes  to  fact, 
occasionally  making  some  spasmodic  attempt  at  re- 
pression, but  refusing  to  make  thorough  study  of  con- 
ditions and  find  a  cure.  Raids  and  arrests,  and  long 
intervals  of  doing  nothing,  will  never  rid  us  of  vice; 
it  has  been  tried  for  three  thousand  years  without  the 
slightest  result.  This  method  will  not  even  destroy 
the  commercial  system;  it  only  makes  it  a  little  more 
difficult  and  expensive  to  do  business.  We  can  never 
cleanse  the  river  at  the  mouth  while  allowing  sewage 
to  be  discharged  into  it  along  its  hundreds  of  miles  of 
length.  To  cure  bad  results  we  must  get  at  sources. 

A  second  method  is  that  which  has  been  advocated 
in  this  discussion:  an  intelligent  attempt  to  seek  the 
cause  and  to  apply  the  cure  there,  in  the  only  place 
where  it  can  be  effective.  When  every  girl  receives 
a  wage  sufficient  for  her  comfortable  support,  when 
every  young  man  receives  a  wage  sufficient  to  enable 
him  to  marry,  we  shall  see  an  end  to  social  vice. 
When  women  no  longer  need  to  sell  themselves  no 
man -can  buy  them. 

But  we  must  in  fairness  consider  a  third  method  in 
which  many  profess  confidence,  namely,  segregation. 
Sexual  vice  is  illegal,  but  it  is  proposed  practically  to 
legalize  it  by  setting  apart  a  district  in  each  city  in 
which  the  law  may  be  violated.  We  must  recognize 
facts,  say  those  who  propose  this  method;  and  it  is 
a  fact  that  the  evil  exists  and  we  are  not  able  to  eradi- 
cate it;  let  us  therefore  restrain  it  within  limits,  as  the 


2O4  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

best  that  we  can  do,  instead  of  permitting  it  to  pol- 
lute the  whole  city. 

Let  us  recognize  facts  by  all  means,  but  there  are 
two  ways  of  doing  it:  to  recognize  and  accept,  or  to 
recognize  and  war  against  the  facts.  Segregation  pro- 
poses to  recognize  and  accept  the  facts  of  social  vice 
as  inevitable,  incurable,  inescapable.  That  is  pre- 
cisely what  the  moral  sentiment  of  America  has  thus 
far  sturdily  refused  to  do,  and  so  far  it  is  a  healthy 
moral  sentiment.  It  has  thus  far  lacked  sufficient  vigor 
of  health  to  war  against  the  facts  intelligently  and 
persistently.  That  the  facts  are  here  we  all  see;  that 
they  are  inevitable,  in  the  sense  that  they  are  the  neces- 
sary result  of  our  present  economic  system,  is  becom- 
ing clearer  every  day ;  that  they  are  incurable,  that  we 
have  not  the  intelligence  and  the  power  to  solve  this 
problem,  provided  we  have  the  will,  is  precisely  what 
most  of  us  refuse  to  believe. 

Because  segregation  is  a  plan,  not  to  cure  social  evil 
but  to  make  it  permanent,  it  fails  to  command  ethical 
support.  Outside  of  the  vice  system  and  its  patrons 
and  secret  friends  it  has  few  advocates.  Where  it  has 
been  tried  in  our  communities,  as  in  Chicago,  its  ef- 
fect has  been  to  increase  the  worst  evils  of  the  system. 
It  has  stimulated  the  "white  slave"  traffic,  the  entrap- 
ping and  forcible  detention  of  young  girls,  which  is 
perhaps  the  most  cruel  and  shameful  feature  of  the 
whole  shameful  and  cruel  business,  but  necessary  for 
its  profitable  continuance,  since  not  even  poverty  will 
force  girls  in  sufficient  numbers  to  choose  the  vicious 
life,  and  so  fraud  and  force  must  be  employed. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  2C>5 

Two  years'  study  of  the  whole  subject  in  Europe 
convinced  one  competent  investigator,  Dr.  Abraham 
Flexner,  that  there  segregation  fails  to  segregate, 
regulation  does  not  regulate  or  control,  and  medical 
examination  of  a  fraction  of  prostitutes  is  no  protec- 
tion to  society  against  disease.  His  negative  results 
are  valuable;  more  courage  would  have  made  Dr. 
Flexner's  constructive  work  of  equal  value.  He  dis- 
covers the  economic  significance  of  European  prosti- 
tution; there  is  practically  but  one  source  of  supply 
for  the  vice,  "the  lower  working  classes  and  mainly 
the  unmarried  women  of  these  classes."  The  daugh- 
ters of  the  poor  are,  in  Europe  as  here,  the  victims 
of  the  system,  with  only  here  and  there  one  from 
the  educated  and  well-to-do.  Surely,  the  conclusion  is 
so  obvious  that  no  man  with  rudimentary  reasoning 
powers  could  fail  to  draw  it :  the  way  to  fight  prosti- 
tution and  end  it,  the  only  way,  is  to  increase  the  intel- 
ligence and  economic  well-being  of  the  lower  classes. 
Instead,  however,  of  drawing  this  obvious  conclusion, 
Dr.  Flexner  slips  adroitly  aside  and  indulges  in 
meaningless  fine  writing:  "Civilization  has  stripped 
for  a  life  and  death  wrestle  with  tuberculosis,  alcohol 
and  other  plagues.  It  is  on  the  verge  of  a  similar 
struggle  with  the  crasser  forms  of  commercialized 
vice.  Sooner  or  later,  it  must  fling  down  the  gauntlet 
to  the  whole  horrible  thing.  That  will  be  a  real  con- 
test— a  contest  that  will  tax  the  courage,  the  self-de- 
nial, the  faith,  the  resources  of  humanity  to  their  ut- 
most." This  again  emphasizes  the  lesson  that  one 
great  obstacle  to  social  progress  to-day  is  the  cow- 


2O6  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

ardice  of  those  men  who  should  be  leaders,  but  are 
afraid  to  speak  the  whole  truth. 

One  argument  often  heard  in  favor  of  segregation 
is  that  any  attempt  to  repress  vice  without  segregation 
will  result  in  scattering  the  vicious  throughout  the 
community;  they  will  invade  the  good  residential  dis- 
tricts and  annoy  the  rich  and  well-to-do.  Let  them 
scatter;  let  them  invade.  The  poor  have  had  to  tol- 
erate them  long  enough.  It  is  the  rich  whose  profits 
cause  the  system;  it  is  the  rich  whose  money  main- 
tains it;  let  the  rich  then  reap  the  full  fruits  of  what 
they  have  done  and  are  doing.  It  might  and  probably 
would  rouse  them  to  do  something  effective  for  the 
lessening  of  the  evil,  if  not  for  its  cure. 

But  the  chief  objection  to  segregation  is  that  tol- 
erated vice  becomes  by  imperceptible  degrees  approved 
vice.  Toleration  destroys  the  sense  of  right  and 
wrong  in  a  community  to  an  astonishing  degree.  The 
houses  that  are  rented  for  this  vile  business  bring  the 
highest  rents;  and,  tempted  by  this  opportunity  for 
gain,  people  of  the  highest  respectability  and  social 
standing  rent  their  property  to  the  members  of  the 
"system."  It  may  be  that  in  some  cases  they  are 
ignorant  of  the  fact,  that  agents  acting  for  them  are 
responsible;  but  it  may  well  be  suspected  that  so  long 
as  income  is  large  they  take  good  care  to  keep  them- 
selves ignorant  of  such  details.  A  faithful  preaching 
of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  ought  to  produce  an  ethical 
condition  in  Christian  churches  incompatible  with  such 
things.  At  present  this  left-handed  partnership  with 
vice  is  no  bar  to  church  membership.  It  was  at  one 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  2O/ 

time  proposed  in  Chicago  to  put  a  placard  on  each 
house  let  for  immoral  purposes  with  the  name  and  ad- 
dress of  the  owner.  The  very  proposal  led  to  a  sud- 
den cleaning  up  of  one  of  the  worst  districts  of  the 
city.  The  example  is  to  be  commended  to  other  cities ; 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  its  effectiveness  in  stimu- 
lating dormant  consciences  into  active  life. 

In  December,  1913,  the  president  of  a  Realty  Com- 
pany and  manager  of  an  apartment  house  in  New 
York  was  convicted  of  renting  a  flat  to  be  kept  as  a 
disorderly  house.  Justice  Collins  inflicted  the  maxi- 
mum fine  of  $500,  but  remarked  that  this  was  inade- 
quate as  a  penalty  and  therefore  also  imposed  a  sen- 
tence of  twenty-five  days'  imprisonment.  The  Court 
added  that  this  conviction  of  a  person  of  prominence 
and  wealth  for  this  offense  was  the  first  in  a  long 
number  of  years.  But  the  offense  is  without  doubt 
frequently  committed,  and  if  such  convictions  were 
more  frequent  people  of  wealth  and  respectability 
would  derive  less  income  from  this  filthy  source. 

It  should  be  recognized  that  something  can  be  done 
to  reduce  the  extent  of  vice  and  suppress  some  of  its 
crying  abuses,  by  the  general  reform  and  cleaning 
up  of  our  political  system  in  which  we  Americans 
are  now  engaged.  All  those  changes  of  method  that 
give  the  people  more  direct  control  of  government,  in- 
cluding the  initiative,  referendum  and  recall,  are  helps 
toward  solution  of  this  problem.  Those  experiments 
in  better  municipal  government,  originating  in  the 
West  and  rapidly  making  their  way  eastward,  will 
work  in  the  same  direction.  Whatever  changes  in  our 


2O8  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

system  make  for  more  real  democracy  will  be  effective 
in  dealing  with  the  second  great  factor  in  the  system 
of  commercialized  vice,  the  greed  that  actuates  it,  fhe 
profit  that  makes  it  possible  and  keeps  it  going. 
Democracy  will  make  a  quick  end  of  the  alliance  with 
the  underworld  that  the  police  of  our  cities  have  so 
long  maintained.  No  sober  man  will  deny  that  the 
problem  is  a  tremendous  and  many-sided  one,  nor  will 
he  maintain  that  striking  improvement  is  to  be  hoped 
for  in  a  day.  But  now  that  we  are  getting  a  better 
idea  of  the  terms  of  the  problem,  what  we  have  to  do 
and  how  to  do  it,  steady  progress  may  be  reasonably 
hoped  for. 

It  has  been  a  great  surprise  to  Americans  of  the 
better  class  to  discover  how  intimate  is  the  connection 
between  vice  and  politics,  and  even  yet  they  are  hardly 
able  to  believe  the  facts  thrust  upon  them  from  all 
sides.  Yet  the  facts  are  too  well  attested  to  be  dis- 
believed. Men  have  only  begun  to  suspect  the  tie 
that  exists  between  vice  and  capitalism.  As  we  have 
seen,  one  great  obstacle  to  the  suppression  of  vice  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  property  interests  of  our 
"best  citizens"  lead  them  to  give  the  system  effective 
if  secret  support.  But  this  is  not  the  only,  or  even 
the  chief,  connection  between  men  of  wealth  and  vice. 
The  existence  of  a  large  class  of  the  vicious  and 
criminal,  the  pimps  and  thugs  of  the  underworld,  is 
useful  to  capitalists — in  fact,  is  indispensable.  It  fur- 
nishes the  gangs  of  "guards"  and  "strike-breakers" 
employed  against  the  workers  in  every  great  strike. 
It  is  the  reserve  militia  of  ihe  employing  class,  and  is 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  2OQ 

promptly  called  out  whenever  there  are  labor  troubles, 
when  it  does  effectively  what  it  is  hired  to  do. 

This  sort  of  thing  is  work  very  congenial  to  the 
people  of  the  underworld.  It  permits  them  'to  go 
armed  and  to  indulge  their  liking  for  violence,  while 
it  supplies  them  with  money  for  the  indulgence  of 
their  appetites.  It  offers  them  facility  for  commit- 
ting all  sorts  of  minor  crimes  with  impunity,  for  the 
testimony  of  their  victims  will  not  be  received  against 
theirs  in  any  court.  If  the  strikers  are  women,  it 
offers  a  golden  opportunity  to  do  their  favorite  work 
as  panders ;  for  when  working  women  are  out  of  work, 
hungry  and  desperate,  is  the  very  time  when  they  can 
best  be  persuaded  to  exchange  the  factory  for  the 
brothel.  The  police  know  these  things,  but  it  is  their 
interest  also  to  side  with  the  employing  class.  The 
capitalists  know  the  facts,  but  so  long  as  strikes  are 
broken  they  care  for  nothing  else.  So  our  cities  have 
a  large  class  of  gunmen  and  "crooks,"  and  when 
there  is  no  other  outlet  for  their  activities  they  occa- 
sionally kill  a  policeman.  Then  we  have  a  great  ex- 
citement for  a  few  days,  and  matters  go  on  as  before. 

Even  when  the  police  are  honest  and  try  to  break 
tip  the  commercialized  system  of  vice,  they  are  greatly 
handicapped  by  the  law  and  the  courts.  It  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  obtain  evidence  that  will  convict  of- 
fenders. Officers  in  plain  clothes  are  often  forbidden 
to  enter  illegal  resorts  to  get  evidence  against  them, 
and  to  send  an  officer  in  uniform  is  "to  hunt  ducks 
with  a  brass  band."  The  law,  as  interpreted  by  the 
courts,  requires  corroboration,  in  case  a  briber  turns 


2IO  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

state's  evidence,  and  the  transaction  being  conducted 
in  private  there  is  never  any  third  party  available  to 
furnish  the  corroboration.  It  actually  seems  as  if  the 
law  and  its  administration  were  carefully  contrived 
for  the  protection  of  the  law-breaker,  not  of  society. 
And  so  there  is  little  improvement  in  a  state  of  things 
that  places  heavy  stress  of  temptation  upon  those  who 
are  little  able  to  bear  it,  at  the  same  time  furnishing 
very  inadequate  protection  for  the  weak.  The  only 
ray  of  hope  is  a  growing  sense  of  social  and  per- 
sonal responsibility  for  such  conditions,  since  this 
promises  for  the  future  a  closer  brotherhood  and  a 
higher  morality. 

Something  may  be  done  by  better  legislation  to 
lessen  vice,  even  though  the  value  of  this  remedy  is 
greatly  overestimated  by  hosts  of  good  people.  The 
Mann  Act  is  an  excellent  specimen  of  what  may  at 
present  be  accomplished  by  this  method.  It  is  directed 
specifically  against  the  "white  slave"  traffic,  and  pro- 
vides imprisonment  up  to  five  years  and  a  fine  up  to 
$i  ,000  for  inveigling  a  woman  into  a  house  of  prosti- 
tution or  detaining  her  there  against  her  will.  Des- 
perate efforts  were  made  by  the  interests  involved  to 
break  this  statute,  by  inducing  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  to  declare  it  unconstitutional.  The 
Attorney  General  did  society  good  service,  upholding 
the  statute  vigorously,  and  as  it  turned  out  success- 
fully. He  argued  that  since  the  Supreme  Court  had 
upheld  the  constitutionality  of  the  law  against  the 
transportation  in  interstate  commerce  of  diseased  cat- 
tle, it  ought  to  be  humane  enough  and  wise  enough  to 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  211 

regard  women  as  at  least  of  equal  importance  with 
cattle.  "Will  it  be  said,"  he  argued,  "that  Congress, 
if  it  chooses  to  act,  cannot  protect  the  people  of  the 
several  States  against  the  wrongful  transportation  of 
women  and  girls — that  the  law  affords  greater  secur- 
ity to  cattle  than  it  does  to  persons?"  The  decision 
handed  down  in  February,  1913,  sustained  the  statute. 
The  law  went  into  effect  in  July,  1910;  and  in  two 
years  following  the  Federal  courts  secured  337  con- 
victions, with  sentences  totaling  607  years  and  fines 
aggregating  $66,605.  There  were  only  35  acquittals 
of  those  indicted  and  tried. 


Vi 

What  has  been  said  applies  in  most  particulars  also 
to  that  other  great  vice  and  social  evil,  the  drink 
habit.  Men  have  used  alcoholic  beverages  from  prehis- 
toric times,  and  drunkenness  has  always  been  a  social 
evil  of  most  races.  But  only  within  the  last  century 
has  the  evil  been  so  commercialized  and  extended  as  to 
become  a  world  menace.  The  saloon  is  merely  the 
local  manifestation  of  a  great  capitalistic  enterprise. 
As  with  all  forms  of  Big  Business,  no  restraint  of 
law,  morality  or  religion  is  permitted  to  stand  in  the 
way  of  Profit.  Not  only  is  every  effort  to  limit  the 
sale  of  liquor  fought  to  the  last  ditch,  but  there  is  a 
constant  and  successful  effort  to  stimulate  the  demand 
for  liquor  and  so  to  increase  its  sale.  "Successful," 
one  says,  because,  notwithstanding  the  remarkable 


212  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

growth  of  "dry"  territory  in  recent  years,  there  has 
been  a  large  increase  in  the  per  capita  consumption 
of  alcoholics. 

These  facts  are  not  so  well  known  as  they  should 
be,  so  it  is  perhaps  pardonable  to  dwell  upon  them  a 
little.  In  the  fiscal  year  of  1913  the  people  of  this 
country  consumed  143,300,000  gallons  of  distilled 
liquors,  an  increase  of  7,500,000  gallons  over  the  pre- 
vious year,  and  breaking  all  former  records.  They 
poured  down  their  throats  during  the  same  year  64,- 
500,000  barrels  of  beer,  exceeding  any  previous  year 
by  more  than  a  million  barrels.  Incidentally  it  may 
be  mentioned  that  they  smoked  during  the  same  time 
7,707,000,000  cigars  and  over  14,012,000,000  cigar- 
ettes. These,  as  a  Kentucky  "colonel"  might  say,  are 
the  necessaries  of  life.  What  was  left  out  of  their 
incomes  the  people  spent  for  food,  clothing,  rent,  and 
other  luxuries. 

So  completely  is  the  business  commercialized  that 
the  independent  saloon  hardly  exists.  There  is  a 
Brewers'  Trust  and  a  Distillers'  Trust,  and  between 
them  they  not  only  manufacture  the  great  bulk  of 
liquor  made,  but  control  the  retail  trade.  Most  saloons 
have  an  ostensible  owner,  but  the  Trust  has  a  chattel 
mortgage  that  fully  covers  the  value  of  furniture  and 
stock,  and  the  "owner"  is  in  reality  only  the  hireling 
of  the  Trust.  And  when  legal  means  of  sale  fail 
them,  when  lawful  weapons  of  resistance  to  society 
prove  ineffective,  the  Trusts  never  hesitate  to  resort 
to  illegal — assassination  and  arson  have  marked  the 
progress  of  temperance  in  every  State  where  it  has 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    VICE  213 

progressed.  The  "blind  tiger"  and  the  "bootlegger" 
would,  of  course,  be  impossible  institutions  if  dis- 
tillers and  brewers  would  sell  only  to  reputable  per- 
sons and  through  legal  agencies.  Licit  or  illicit  is  all 
one  to  them,  so  the  stuff  is  sold  and  the  great  god 
Profit  remains  on  his  throne.  In  my  haste  I  have  done 
them  injustice,  and  I  hasten  to  admit  it:  they  would 
prefer,  no  doubt,  to  sell  under  the  law,  but  when  they 
cannot  they  are  determined  to  sell  against  the  law. 

So  long  as  this  great  business  of  making  a  profit 
from  the  sale  of  alcohol  in  its  various  forms  con- 
tinues, attempting  the  reform  of  individual  victims  is 
an  absolutely  futile  method  of  dealing  with  it.  Not 
only  will  the  present  volume  of  the  traffic  continue, 
but  the  ingenuity  of  men  and  the  power  of  money 
will  be  exhausted  in  attempts  to  create  more  appetite 
and  extend  the  business.  And  experience  shows  that 
the  attempts  will  not  be  in  vain.  Prohibition  does 
not  prohibit,  in  any  real  or  effective  way.  The  Church 
and  the  various  anti-saloon  agitations,  in  spite  of  their 
local  victories,  are  making  no  impression  on  the  traffic 
as  a  whole.  In  spite  of  all  yet  accomplished  by  the 
forces  hitherto  arrayed  against  the  saloon,  a  greater 
volume  of  liquor  pours  forth  every  year.  We  must 
learn  to  strike  at  the  root  of  the  evil,  and  not  at  a 
small  branch  here  and  there.  And  the  roots  of  the 
liquor  traffic  are  Profit  and  Poverty.  Anything  that 
improves  the  economic  condition  of  the  whole  people 
will  tend  powerfully  to  reduce  the  consumption  of 
liquor.  But  the  quickest  and  surest  results  may  be  at- 


214  THE    GOSPEL    OF   JESUS 

tained  by  eliminating  the  element  of  profit.  There  is 
one  certain  means  of  doing  this,  and  that  is  to  socialize 
the  business,  take  it  out  of  the  hands  of  individuals 
and  subject  it  to  State  control. 

It  will  be  urged  that  nation-wide  prohibition  would 
be  equally  effective  and  ethically  better.  Let  us  not 
dispute  over  a  name.  What  I  am  calling  State  con- 
trol is  exactly  what  is  usually  called  prohibition,  which 
is  not  prohibition  at  all.  The  name  is  not  honest, 
and  that  is  why  I  prefer  not  to  use  it.  In  those 
States  where  a  so-called  prohibition  law  prevails, 
Maine  for  example,  there  is  a  State  dispensary  in  every 
town  where  liquor  may  be  bought,  the  buyer  signing 
his  name  in  a  register  and  stating  the  purpose  for 
which  it  is  bought.  Manufacture  and  sale  of  liquor 
are  prohibited  to  individuals,  but  the  State  sells  liquor 
in  the  so-called  prohibition  States.  The  Maine  kind 
of  "prohibition"  is  what  I  advocate  for  all  our  States, 
under  the  more  honest  term  of  State  control. 

This  would  effectively  dispose  of  one  root  of  the 
evil,  Profit.  The  business  would  not  be  conducted 
for  a  profit ;  it  would  be  minimized  as  far  as  possible ; 
and  whatever  profit  there  was  would  be  for  the  benefit 
of  us  all,  not  for  the  enrichment  of  a  few.  In  a  very 
short  time  the  sale  would  be  reduced  to  small  propor- 
tions, and  in  a  generation  might  be  expected  virtually 
to  cease.  Especially  would  this  be  the  case  if  the 
progress  of  society  should  eliminate  the  other  root, 
Poverty.  Sociologists  are  more  and  more  coming  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  drink  habit  is  less  a  cause  of 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    VICE  21$ 

poverty  than  an  effect.  If  we  accept  their  opinion,  we 
come  by  another  way  to  the  conviction  that  we  have 
here  a  social  evil  for  which  an  effective  cure  can  be 
found  only  by  the  abolition  of  poverty. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE   PROBLEM    OF   CRIME 


CRIME  is  one  of  the  costliest  luxuries  that  society 
permits  itself  to  enjoy.  We  worship  efficiency,  forget- 
ting that  the  efficiency  of  the  social  order  is  meas- 
ured by  its  degree  of  success  in  eliminating  crime  and 
other  unnecessary  costs.  The  more  perfectly  organized 
the  society,  the  fewer  the  criminals.  A  high  ratio  of 
crime  is  an  indictment  of  a  people's  civilization.  The 
United  States  has  a  high  ratio  of  crime.  We  have, 
it  is  true,  elaborate  and  costly  machinery  for  the  de- 
tection and  punishment  of  criminals,  and  thousands 
are  detected  and  punished  every  year.  There  is  no 
reason  to  question  the  excellence  of  the  machinery; 
it  is  good  of  its  kind.  Yet  that  it  is  ineffective  hardly 
demands  argument  or  proof.  We  know  perfectly  well 
that  we  are  engaged  in  the  foolishly  wasteful  process 
of  making  criminals  by  thousands  and  reforming  them 
by  hundreds.  Why  not  try  to  stop  the  making? 

If  there  are  some  who  will  demand  proof  of  the 
ineffectiveness  of  our  present  system,  let  us  take  the 
prevalence  of  homicide  throughout  the  United  States, 
and  especially  in  our  cities.  The  average  ratio  of 
homicides  in  England  is  .9  per  100,000,  while  in  thirty 

216 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  217 

of  our  large  cities  the  average  ratio  in  the  years  1901- 
1910  was  6.9  and  in  1911  it  rose  to  8.3.  We  should 
probably  select  Russia  as  the  least  civilized  of  Euro- 
pean States,  the  country  of  "pogroms"  and  Nihilists, 
yet  in  our  large  cities  as  many  people  are  murdered 
each  year  as  in  the  whole  of  Russia.1  On  the  other 
hand,  the  number  of  legal  executions  from  1909  to  1912 
was  400.  With  an  average  number  of  2,439  yearly 
homicides  during  the  last  ten  years,  there  was  an 
average  number  of  yearly  executions  of  about  100. 
No  wonder  the  Hon.  Andrew  D.  White  declares  that 
"we  lead  the  civilized  world,  with  the  exception,  per- 
•  haps,  of  lower  Italy  and  Sicily,  in  murders,  and  espe- 
cially in  unpunished  murders."  What  is  the  necessity 
of  agitating  for  abolition  of  capital  punishment?  a 
sarcastic  critic  of  our  institutions  might  ask.  It  is 
already  virtually  abolished.  And  its  substitute,  im- 
prisonment for  life,  is  also  practically  abolished.  The 
average  "life"  sentence  is  proved  by  our  prison  records 
to  be  about  six  years;  and  the  worst  cases  are  fre- 
quently pardoned  after  a  year  or  two  of  confinement. 
Society  has  at  present  no  protection  worth  mentioning 
against  the  crime  of  murder. 

Our  system  is  as  costly  as  it  is  ineffective.  A 
rough  estimate  is  that  crime  costs  us  as  much  as  edu- 
cation, but  the  fact  is  that  we  have  no  statistics  of 
crime  worthy  of  being  called  scientific,  and  so  any  con- 
clusions must  be  tentative.  But  enough  is  known  to 

1  The  exact  figures  are:  homicides  in  Russia,  1907-1911,  7,716; 
in  American  cities,  1905-1909,  12,198.  The  correspondence  of 
years  is  not  exact,  but  this  is  immaterial. 


2l8  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

warrant  the  statement  that  to  protect  itself  against 
crime  and  punish  criminals  costs  society  the  equiva- 
lent of  every  bale  of  cotton  and  every  bushel  of  wheat 
raised  in  the  United  States.  Governor  Foss  told  the 
American  Prison  Association  that  Massachusetts  in 
1912  spent  $7,000,000  for  police,  courts  and  prisons, 
and  less  than  $25,000  for  the  restoration  of  criminals 
to  good  citizenship.  Massachusetts  has  always  been 
considered  one  of  our  most  intelligent  and  progressive 
commonwealths,  yet  it  spends  $280  for  the  punish- 
ment of  crime  for  every  dollar  that  is  spent  for  the 
cure  of  crime.  Naturally,  we  get  for  such  expendi- 
ture more  criminals  and  more  crime.  Four  million 
dollars  a  day  are  worse  than  wasted  because  society 
is  not  willing  to  adopt  curative  measures,  but  prefers 
palliatives,  and  the  least  effective  of  palliatives  at  that. 
Not  only  are  we  constantly  manufacturing  fresh  crim- 
inals, but  the  older  stock  are  degenerated  rather  than 
regenerated  by  our  system. 

One  reason  doubtless  why  our  machinery  fails  to 
accomplish  the  desired  result  is  that  it  violates  men's 
ethical  sense  at  every  turn.  To  begin  with,  it  is  so 
bunglingly  devised  and  so  blindly  and  partially  admin- 
istered. A  man  steals  a  railroad,  a  factory  or  some 
other  valuable  property,  in  Wall  street,  by  means  that 
we  all  understand.  What  do  we,  what  does  society, 
to  him?  Most  of  us  admire  and  envy  him;  the  rest 
condone  his  fault,  especially  if  he  is  a  good  fellow  or 
benevolent.  Another  man  breaks  into  the  first  man's 
house  and  steals  some  property,  silverware  or  jew- 
elry. What  does  society  to  him?  If  he  can  be 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  219 

caught,  he  is  sent  to  prison  for  a  term  of  years,  usu- 
ally a  long  one.  In  such  case,  the  man  robbed  has  no 
better  ethical  title  to  his  property  than  the  man  who 
robs  —  it  is  a  case  of  one  thief  taking  from  another 
thief.  But  there  is  a  vast  social  difference  between 
the  two  offenses,  identical  as  they  are  in  ethical  qual- 
ity: the  law  permits  and  custom  makes  respectable 
one  sort  of  thieving,  while  both  condemn  the  other. 
But  "Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  if  it  has  any  validity, 
applies  to  both  men  and  to  both  offenses. 

The  differences  between  the  crimes  of  the  upper 
classes  and  those  of  the  lower  correspond  very  closely 
in  the  main  to  their  economic  differences  —  that  is  to 
say,  their  crimes  differ  more  in  degree  than  in  kind. 
The  poor  man  is  a  little  criminal,  the  rich  man  a  big. 
One  sins  at  retail,  so  to  speak,  the  other  at  wholesale. 
There  is  something  impressive  about  the  rich  man's 
crime;  often  its  very  audacity  takes  the  breath  away 
and  makes  one  almost  admire;  while  the  poor  man's 
offense  often  seems  less  wrong  than  mean  and  sordid. 
Among  the  upper  classes  the  devil  has  learned  to  en- 
case his  cloven  hoofs  in  spats  and  patent  leathers; 
he  hides  his  tail  under  a  dress  suit,  and  a  silk  hat  of 
the  latest  shape  covers  his  horns.  Among  the  poor  he 
stalks  in  the  old  form,  finding  no  disguise  necessary.1 

In  both  higher  and  lower  classes  crime  has  an  eco- 
nomic cause,'  the  same  economic  cause  in  truth.  Crime 
is  inseparable  from  the  capitalistic  system  of  industry. 
Poverty  incites  the  worker,  greed  impels  the  employer, 


s,  "Sin  and  Society,"  especially  the  chapter  on  New  Va- 
rieties of  Sin. 


22O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

to  those  acts  that  we  call  criminal.  Take  a  single 
class  of  such  acts  as  an  example:  Fire  Commissioner 
Johnson,  of  New  York,  is  responsible  for  the  asser- 
tion that  one  fire  of  every  four  is  of  incendiary  origin. 
Men  deliberately  start  fires,  and  other  men  even  more 
deliberately  hire  fires  to  be  started,  in  order  to  collect 
insurance.  There  was  a  regular  system  in  New  York 
a  few  years  ago,  and  may  be  still,  and  the  like  doubt- 
less exists  in  other  cities,  whereby  a  dishonest  busi- 
ness man  could  hire  professional  "firebugs"  to  set 
fire  to  his  premises.  The  insurance  companies,  in 
their  greed  for  premiums,  permitted  such  reckless  over- 
insurance  of  property  as  in  itself  constituted  a  bribe 
to  every  dishonest  man  to  commit  this  form  of  crime. 
If  there  were  no  fire  insurance,  fires  would  be  dimin- 
ished fully  25  per  cent.  Thus  it  comes  about  that  a 
business  designed  to  protect  the  community  against 
fire  results  is  increasing  the  danger  of  the  community 
from  fire.  This  costly  form  of  crime  is  one  of  the 
elements  of  the  high  cost  of  living;  for,  of  course,  the 
cost  of  premiums  and  all  loss  by  fire  is  ultimately 
assessed  on  society,  in  the  form  of  enhanced  prices. 
Another  consequence  is  that  the  class  ordinarily  de- 
scribed as  law-abiding  and  conservative,  the  "business 
men"  of  the  community,  destroy  more  property  than 
the  class  ordinarily  described  as  criminal.  This  ex- 
traordinary state  of  affairs  never  before  existed  in 
any  nation  or  society ;  it  is  the  product  of  our  modern 
industrial  system  and  of  unlimited  competition  in  the 
insurance  business. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  221 


II 


One  great  difficulty  in  our  dealing  with  the  problem 
of  crime  is  that  we  have  no  consistent  system  of 
penology.  Our  laws  are  founded  on  several  different, 
it  not  contradictory,  principles,  some  of  which  are  no 
longer  tenable.  Punishments  have  been  imposed  by 
statute  on  the  principle  that  certain  offenses  must  be 
expiated  by  a  certain  penalty.  But  the  idea  of  expia- 
tion is  philosophically  absurd  and  socially  impossible. 
To  "make  the  punishment  fit  the  crime"  seems  easy 
until  it  is  tried.  Nobody  can  tell  just  what  degree 
of  moral  turpitude  is  involved  in  a  wrong  act,  and 
nobody  can  know  the  degree  of  suffering  involved  in 
a  given  penalty.  Any  algebraist  will  assure  us  that 
an  equation  containing  two  unknown  quantities  is  in- 
soluble. Expiation  could  not  be  accomplished  even 
with  the  values  of  both  unknown  quantities  given,  for 
evil  cannot  be  expiated  with  evil.  If,  for  example,  a 
man  has  taken  life,  for  society  to  take  his  life  does 
not  constitute  expiation  of  the  crime — it  is  merely  an- 
other crime,  murder  added  to  murder. 

The  new  idea  of  God  that  Jesus  has  given  us  as- 
sures us  that  He  does  nothing  to  man  save  in  love. 
We  can  no  longer  believe  in  a  hell  to  which  a  venge- 
ful Deity  condemns  men  to  suffer  endlessly,  as  the  fit 
reward  of  the  evil  they  have  done  here.  If  we  believe 
now  in  future  retribution,  it  is  suffering  that  men 
bring  on  themselves  by  refusing  a  Father's  forgive- 
ness and  scorning  a  Father's  love.  That  is  the  only 


222  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

idea  of  God  and  of  retribution  that  Jesus  permits  a 
follower  of  his  to  entertain.  If,  as  the  theologians 
have  for  ages  been  asserting,  human  law  at  its  best 
is  but  a  transcript  of  the  divine,  then  every  act  of 
society  in  dealing  with  crime,  not  prompted  by  the 
desire  to  protect  itself  by  bettering  the  criminal,  is 
itself  criminal. 

If  the  principle  of  expiation  cannot  be  admitted,  as 
a  foundation  for  criminal  law,  still  less  can  revenge. 
Jesus  forever  ruled  that  out  of  the  conduct  of  his 
disciples.  He  forbade  to  his  followers  the  revenge  ap- 
proved by  Jewish  law,  and  commanded  in  its  stead 
the  law  of  love,  active  good-will  toward  all :  "But  I 
say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies  and  pray  for  them 
that  persecute  you."  But  in  spite  of  these  words,  the 
spirit  of  legislation  has  been  for  nineteen  centuries,  and 
still  is :  "Eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand, 
foot  for  foot,  burning  for  burning,  stripe  for  stripe" 
(Ex.  21:24).  Still  is,  one  says,  for  not  long  ago, 
in  one  of  our  American  courts,  a  judge  1  addressed 
one  whom  he  was  sentencing  to  imprisonment  for  life 
in  these  words : 

"You  are  to  receive  a  sterner  punishment  than  death. 
You  will  die  a  hundred  times.  There  will  be  for  you 
only  the  hopeless  painful  years  from  day  to  day,  from 
month  to  month,  stretching  out  forever,  and  in  agony. 
You  will  be  wiped  out  from  human  knowledge.  You  will 
not  be  permitted  to  lift  a  hand  or  whisper  a  word.  In 
four  or  five  years  the  eternal  solitude  and  silence  will 

1  Judge  Marcus  Kavanagh,  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Cook 
County,  Illinois,  as  reported  in  the  Chicago  papers. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  223 

begin  to  crush  in  upon  you  like  an  iron  weight.  You  hear 
that  street-car  bell  ringing  now ;  you  will  remember  it  in 
after  years  as  the  most  exquisite  music.  It  will  mean 
hurrying  crowds  that  go  where  they  like  and  do  as  they 
please;  it  will  mean  the  greatest  of  all  pleasures — free- 
dom. You  can  only  dream  of  it  by  day  and  by  night  and 
your  dream  will  be  torture  unspeakable.  In  the  summer 
you  will  guess  there  are  cool  rivers  running  somewhere 
under  green  trees  and  you  will  long  for  the  sight  of  even 
a  green  leaf  with  an  aching  you  never  thought  you  could 
experience.  In  a  few  weeks  the  holidays  with  their  lights 
and  festivities  and  happiness  will  be  here,  and  many  a 
Christmas  will  roll  over  you  in  your  iron  cage  and  high 
stone  wall,  but  you  will  never  hear  a  child  laugh  again. 
The  law  has  taken  its  full  and  ample  revenge  upon  you." 

If  revenge  could  be  admitted  as  a  valid  principle  in 
law,  then  there  are  many  who  would  say  that  a  judge 
who  could  deliver  such  an  inhuman  and  malignantly 
cruel  tirade  to  a  prisoner  ought  himself  to  be  sent  to 
prison  for  a  long  term  of  years.  But  even  a  judge 
capable  of  such  deliberate  and  cold-blooded  ferocity 
ought  not  to  be  punished  in  a  spirit  of  revenge.  He 
illustrates  anew,  what  history  testifies  on  every  page, 
that  bitter  personal  hate  could  not  have  devised  more 
cruel  and  vindictive  punishments  than  have  been  ad- 
ministered under  sanction  of  law  and  in  the  name  of 
justice. 

It  is  pleaded  in  behalf  of  laws  framed  on  this  prin- 
ciple that  they  satisfy  a  natural  sentiment  of  man- 
kind, which  demands  retribution  and  will  be  content 
with  nothing  less.  There  is  no  question  that  the  senti- 
ment of  revenge  is  "natural,"  in  the  sense  that  it  exists 


224  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

and  is  common ;  but  the  question  is,  Is  revenge  ethical  ? 
Is  retribution  justifiable?  And  the  answer  is  that  re- 
venge is  both  irreligious  and  anti-social.  Irreligious 
we  have  already  seen  it  to  be, — flatly  opposed  to  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  Is  is  as  clearly  anti-social,  for  all 
are  agreed  that  only  active  good-will  from  all  to  all 
is  compatible  with  social  happiness  and  social  progress. 
Revenge  is  the  annihilation  of  good-will.  The  pres- 
ent degree  of  peace  and  order  of  society  has  been  at- 
tained only  by  suppression  of  this  "natural"  desire 
for  revenge.  Individuals  are  no  longer  permitted 
to  avenge  their  own  wrongs;  society  has  undertaken 
to  see  that  each  man  is  protected  in  his  rights.  So- 
ciety must  not  do  what  it  has  forbidden  the  individual 
to  do.  And,  besides,  a  system  of  retributive  punish- 
ment will  break  down  of  its  own  absurdities.  Some 
offenses,  as  treason,  cannot  be  returned  in  kind  to  the 
offender.  Let  us  ponder  a  remark  of  Seneca's,1  as 
wise  as  it  is  witty — "Would  any  one  think  himself  to 
be  in  his  perfect  mind  if  he  were  to  return  kicks  to  a 
mule  or  bites  to  a  dog?" 

The  only  ground  on  which  society  can  make  good 
its  right  to  punish  the  criminal  is  the  principle  of  self- 
protection.  Society  has  the  same  right  as  the  indi- 
vidual to  repel  attacks  on  itself  and  to  use  so  much 
force  as  may  be  necessary.  But  society  has  no  more 
right  than  the  individual  to  use  more  force  than  is 
necessary  for  self -protection.  This  must  be  regarded 
as  the  ethical  foundation  of  penology.  Several  things 
follow  from  this  principle.  If  crime  has  a  social  cause 

1  Seneca,  De  Ira,  iii,  26. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  225 

or  social  causes,  punishment  of  the  individual  is  an 
ineffective  means  of  self -protection,  because  it  leaves 
the  cause  untouched,  to  go  on  producing  crime.  Real 
self -protect  ion  consists  in  removal  of  the  social  con- 
ditions that  impel  men  to  crime.  It  also  follows  that 
the  real  guilt  of  what  we  call  crime  is  its  anti-social 
character.  The  criminal  is  a  man  who  refuses  to 
accept  the  ethical  standards  of  society,  especially  those 
that  relate  to  property.  Some  of  these  standards  are 
artificial  and  indefensible,  but  society  insists  that  even 
these  must  be  respected  while  they  exist  and  must  be 
modified  in  an  orderly  social  way.  Any  other  con- 
duct, even  if  it  has  behind  it  a  true  ethical  principle,  is 
selfish  and  anti-social. 

Crimes  may  be  traced  to  the  preponderance  in  many 
individuals  of  the  selfish  instinct  over  the  social.  The 
great  majority  of  men  have  been  brought  by  ages  of 
discipline  to  the  point  where  their  social  instinct  is 
strong,  and  they  hesitate  to  perform  any  act  that 
promises  to  be  injurious  to  the  community  of  which 
they  are  members.  No  treatment  of  crime  can  make 
any  claim  to  be  considered  scientific  unless  its  aim 
is  to  develop  the  social  instinct  in  the  criminal  and 
so  eradicate  crime  by  extinguishing  the  criminal  mo- 
tive. In  other  words,  the  sole  adequate  protection 
of  society  from  crime  is  the  reformation  of  the 
criminal. 

If  self -protection  is  the  ethical  ground  of  society's 
right  to  restrain  the  criminal,  it  follows  that  what- 
ever is  prescribed  for  him  must  not  be  penalty  for 
what  he  has  done,  but  discipline  to  influence  what  he 


226  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

will  henceforth  do.  This  is  fatal  to  the  whole  idea  of 
"punishment"  for  crime,  even  as  a  deterrent.  The 
saying  ascribed  to  an  English  judge  is  often  quoted 
with  approval.  In  the  good  old  days  when  men  were 
hanged  for  stealing  anything  above  a  shilling's  worth, 
a  man  was  convicted  of  stealing  a  sheep,  and  in  sen- 
tencing him  the  judge  said :  "You  are  hanged,  not 
because  you  have  stolen  a  sheep,  but  in  order  that 
sheep  may  not  be  stolen."  But  even  conservative  Eng- 
land finally  became  convinced  that  hanging  was  no 
real  deterrent  of  theft,  and  did  not  secure  its  pro- 
fessed end,  the  protection  of  society  in  the  enjoyment 
of  property.  Sheep-stealing  went  merrily  on  in  spite 
of  frequent  hangings,  and  it  was  found  better  to  let 
the  thief  live  and  do  what  was  possible  to  transform 
him  into  an  honest  man.  Now  we  are  finding  the 
principle  of  equality  of  sentences  to  be  erroneous. 
They  are  indefensible  on  the  theory  of  expiatory  or 
retributive  or  deterrent  punishment,  because  they  can- 
not be  adjusted  to  individual  guilt.  And  if  penalty 
is  to  be  corrective,  equal  sentences  are  utterly  absurd, 
for  the  nature  and  duration  of  corrective  treatment 
must  be  adjusted  to  the  character  of  the  criminal  and 
not  to  the  supposed  heinousness  of  his  crime. 

There  has  been  a  great  change  in  the  general  hu- 
maneness of  civilized  nations  in  the  treatment  of 
crime,  but  no  great  advance  in  principle.  In  1837  the 
death  penalty  was  repealed  in  England  in  the  case  of 
about  two  hundred  crimes,  without  any  appreciable  in- 
crease in  criminality.  Public  whippings,  brandings, 
mutilations,  once  common,  are  now  practically  un- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   CRIME  227 

known.  Cruel  executions,  such  as  breaking  on  the 
wheel,  drawing  asunder  with  horses,  and  the  penalty 
for  treason,  familiar  to  every  reader  of  English  his- 
tory, of  being  "hanged,  drawn  and  quartered,"  are 
now  totally  disused.  The  punishments  that  were  se- 
vere to  brutality  were  proved  by  experience  to  be  no 
more  deterrent  than  the  milder.  Indeed,  it  seems  to 
be  fairly  well  established  that  petty  crimes  were  pro- 
portionally commoner  when  they  were  punished  by 
hanging  than  now  when  the  penalty  is  brief  imprison- 
ment. Men  reasoned  a  priori  that  heavy  penalties 
would  deter;  but  the  fact  proved  to  be  that  the  more 
rigorous  the  penalty  the  less  the  restraint.  The  way 
of  effectual  protection  of  society  from  crime  is  to 
eliminate  the  criminal.  Since  we  have  decided  not  to 
eliminate  him  by  death,  the  only  method  left  to  us  is 
to  eliminate  him  by  reform.  He  must  be  changed 
into  an  honest  man. 

In  other  words,  everything  that  we  have  learned 
about  criminals  and  crime  points  to  the  conclusion 
that  direct  attempts  to  suppress  and  punish  crime  are 
doomed  to  failure,  and  that  progress  is  to  be  made  in 
an  altogether  different  direction  from  that  in  which 
we  have  been  proceeding.  We  can  do  much  to  pro- 
tect society  from  crime  by  a  rational  treatment  of  the 
criminal,  concerning  which  more  will  presently  be  said. 
But  effective  protection  of  society  must  begin  back  of 
the  crime,  in  an  endeavor  to  remove  its  causes.  If  it 
is  true  that  crime  has  a  social  cause,  punishing  or  re- 
forming the  individual  is  no  real  remedy.  If  we  per- 
mit large  numbers  of  men  to  be  assailed  by  what  are 


228  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

to  them  irresistible  temptations  to  commit  crimes,  and 
do  nothing  toward  removal  of  such  temptations,  we 
ourselves  are  the  real  criminals.  When  we  analyze 
any  collection  of  statistics  of  crime,  we  come  imme- 
diately to  this  fact :  offenses  against  property  are  three 
times  as  numerous  as  offenses  against  the  person.  Of 
course  there  must  be  a  reason  for  this,  and  it  is  not 
hard  to  find.  The  present  distribution  of  wealth  offers 
a  constant  inducement  to  large  numbers  of  men  and 
women  to  acquire  from  others  with  little  exertion 
property  that  could  normally  be  acquired  only  by  great 
exertion.  Hence  those  among  us  whose  selfish  in- 
stincts are  stronger  than  the  social — in  other  words, 
those  who  are  not  restrained  by  usual  ethical  principles 
and  social  habits — choose  this  short  and  easy  way. 
Crime  was  the  original  get-rich-quick  scheme,  and  is 
still  the  most  popular.  But  crime  of  that  sort  is  pos- 
sible only  in  a  society  where  property  is  very  un- 
equally distributed,  so  unequally  that  the  moral  sense 
of  the  propertyless  is  outraged  by  the  conditions,  and 
respect  for  property  rights  correspondingly  weakened. 
If  every  man  had  or  might  have  enough  for  his  needs, 
what  inducement  would  there  be  to  take  from  his 
neighbor?  The  normal  man  would  have  little  or  no 
motive  to  steal  or  defraud,  if  he  were  not  in  need  or 
did  not  expect  to  be  in  need.  As  all  roads  lead  to 
Rome,  so  all  investigation  of  our  social  problems  leads 
us,  by  one  path  or  another,  to  poverty  as  the  under- 
lying cause  or  aggravation  of  them  all.  We  may 
safely  conclude  that,  with  poverty,  most  crimes  against 
property  would  disappear;  and  there  would  remain 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   CRIME  229 

only  those  committed  by  the  abnormal,  and  crimes  of 
violence  and  passion,  which  are  relatively  few  in 
number. 


Ill 


It  must  of  course  be  recognized  that  for  a  long 
time  to  come  we  shall  have  to  face  the  practical  neces- 
sity of  dealing  with  crime  and  criminals.  This  will 
be  true  no  matter  how  rapid  progress  we  make 
toward  social  justice  and  economic  equality.  What 
has  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  to  say  about  our  attitude 
toward  the  criminal?  The  whole  Christian  idea  of 
penology,  as  we  have  seen,  is  summed  up  in  the  pre- 
cept, "Love  your  enemies."  The  criminal  is  the  enemy 
of  society;  very  well,  love  him,  show  him  active  good 
will,  do  to  him  whatsoever  things  we  would  have  done 
to  us,  were  the  case  reversed.  We  should  recognize 
that  the  criminal  is  either  born  a  criminal  or  made  a 
criminal.  He  is  entitled  to  our  pity  as  a  man  diseased 
or  a  man  deformed :  in  either  case  a  man  needing  to 
be  cured,  not  deserving  to  be  punished.  Crime  is 
pathological,  and  its  effective  treatment  must  be  a 
system  of  ethical  therapeutics.  We  may  still  call  our 
civil  tribunals  "courts  of  justice"  if  we  can  persuade 
ourselves  that  they  deserve  the  name;  but,  for  our 
courts  that  deal  with  crime,  we  should  invent  another 
title  better  descriptive  of  their  intent.  Possibly 
"courts  of  correction"  would  answer  our  purpose. 
Let  us,  as  Mr.  Howells  has  well  said,  "be  very  careful 
how  we  try  to  do  justice  in  this  world,  and  mostly 


230  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

leave  retribution  of  all  kinds  to  God,  who  really  knows 
about  things;  and  content  ourselves  as  much  as  pos- 
sible with  mercy,  whose  mistakes  are  not  so  irrepa- 
rable." 

Merely  to  send  a  criminal  to  prison  is  a  pitiful  ex- 
pedient for  the  protection  of  society;  he  should  be 
kept  there  until  there  is  reason  to  believe  that,  if  re- 
leased, he  will  no  longer  commit  crime.  Our  present 
practice  operates  merely  as  an  interruption  of  his 
criminal  career,  not  to  mention  that  his  imprisonment 
has  only  fixed  his  character  and  quite  possibly  per- 
fected his  education  as  a  criminal.  To  release  a  crim- 
inal unre  formed  is  as  irrational  as  it  would  be  to  turn 
loose  a  beast  of  prey  after  a  brief  confinement.  It  is 
even  more  irrational,  for  while  the  leopard  cannot 
change  his  spots  the  mind  of  a  criminal  can  be 
changed.  In  the  small  percentage  of  cases  in  which 
reform  is  found  to  be  impossible,  after  due  trial,  the 
only  adequate  protection  of  society  will  be  the  life- 
long detention  of  such.  And,  since  life  imprisonment 
in  such  cases  is  socially  necessary,  it  is  justifiable. 

The  indeterminate  sentence  is  therefore  the  first 
step  in  a  rational  and  Christian  penology.  If  the  ob- 
ject of  society  were  to  punish,  on  any  of  the  theories 
of  the  value  of  punishment,  there  might  be  some  jus- 
tification of  fixed  sentences.  To  suit  so  much  punish- 
ment to  such  a  grade  of  crime  would  in  any  case  be 
crude  justice,  but  it  would  not  be  unjust  in  principle. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  society  has  in  view  the  good  of 
the  criminal,  and  believes  that  the  surest  protection  for 
itself  is  lifting  him  to  a  better  manhood,  then  there 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   CRIME  23! 

is  no  sense  whatever  in  the  definite  sentence.  Men 
so  differ  in  present  character,  and  in  response  to  re- 
formative influences,  that  a  term  of  detention  and  dis- 
cipline quite  sufficient  for  one  would  be  altogether  in- 
adequate for  another.  Detention  should  cease  when 
the  object  has  been  attained — namely,  hopeful  recla- 
mation of  the  offender — and  not  before.  In  leaving 
discretion  to  the  judge  to  impose  a  longer  or  shorter 
sentence,  the  laws  of  most  of  our  States  have  virtu- 
ally adopted  the  principle  of  the  indeterminate  sen- 
tence ;  but  the  judge  is  not  the  person  to  be  invested  by 
law  with  this  discretion,  because  he  can  only  estimate 
the  gravity  of  the  offense,  not  the  effect  of  discipline 
on  the  offender ;  and  so,  with  the  best  intentions  in  the 
world,  he  is  more  likely  than  not  to  make  a  blunder. 
The  officer  to  whom  the  prisoner  is  given  in  charge 
for  detention  and  discipline  can  best  judge  the  effect 
and  decide  when  the  prisoner  is  fit  to  be  released.  Or, 
if  this  is  thought  too  great  and  too  easily  abused  power 
to  be  intrusted  to  a  single  officer,  his  recommendations 
may  be  made  to  a  Board  which  shall  have  power  of 
final  action. 

Joined  to  the  indeterminate  sentence,  of  which  it 
should  be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  Siamese  twin,  should 
be  a  generous  parole  system.  When  a  prisoner  has 
given  satisfactory  evidence  under  detention  and  dis- 
cipline that  he  is  fit  to  be  set  at  liberty,  he  should  be 
released  on  parole.  The  objection  usually  made  to  a 
reformatory  penology  is  that  it  promotes  hypocrisy 
rather  than  reform;  that  any  prisoner  will  profess 
penitence,  and  will  behave  well  for  a  time,  if  this 


232  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

promises  to  secure  his  release.  The  objection  is  theo- 
retically grave,  and  no  doubt  does  constitute  a  prac- 
tical difficulty,  but  it  is  a  priori  reasoning  and  must  be 
tested  by  experience.  The  parole  system  is  already 
in  use  in  several  States,  has  been  tried  long  enough 
to  give  it  a  fair  testing,  and  has  had  the  happiest 
results.  The  released  prisoner  is  of  course  required 
for  a  certain  period,  varying  with  offenses  and  per- 
sons, to  report  himself  and  his  doings  to  the  proper 
officer  at  fixed  intervals.  An  unsatisfactory  report,  or 
failure  to  report,  is  cause  for  rearrest  and  recom- 
mittal to  prison.  There  are  few  failures.  It  is  more 
difficult  to  follow  the  cases  after  final  release  from 
surveillance,  but  those  who  have  had  experience  with 
the  system  believe  that  fully  sixty  per  cent,  do  not 
again  commit  crime.  In  time  we  may  hope  for  much 
better  results  than  this,  but  surely  even  this  is  mak- 
ing great  progress. 

Another  important  change  in  the  treatment  of  crime 
is  such  modification  in  our  penal  laws  as  would  per- 
mit more  lenity  to  first  offenders,  especially  when  the 
offense  is  comparatively  slight  and  the  accused  has 
previously  borne  a  good  character.  The  shame  of 
arrest,  trial  and  conviction  is  enough  penalty  in  most 
cases  of  this  kind  to  deter  from  a  second  offense.  It 
would  therefore  be  socially  safe  to  give  the  court 
power  to  suspend  sentence  during  good  behavior  for 
all  first  offenses,  save  those  of  the  gravest  character. 
This  would  result,  in  a  multitude  of  cases,  in  the  per- 
manent establishment  in  good  character  of  those  who, 
if  sent  to  prison,  may  be  turned  into  habitual  crim- 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  233 

inals.  The  greatest  blunder  of  our  criminal  laws, 
and  that  is  saying  much,  is  the  sending  of  first  offend- 
ers to  the  common  compost-heap  of  our  prisons. 
France  is  wiser  than  we.  Its  criminal  code  provides 
that  for  first  offenses  the  judge  may  suspend  sentence 
on  parole  for  three  years;  if  a  second  offense  is  com- 
mitted within  that  time  the  penalty  is  doubled. 
Our  newspapers  are  full  of  cases  that  illustrate  the 
comparative  defect  of  the  laws  of  most  of  our  States, 
especially  in  dealing  with  young  offenders.  A  ten- 
year-old  boy  in  Georgia  stole  a  bottle  of  pop,  valued 
at  five  cents,  and  for  this  heinous  crime  was  sentenced 
to  confinement  in  the  reformatory  until  his  majority, 
or  eleven  years.  A  six-year-old  criminal  in  Wisconsin 
was  committed  to  the  State  industrial  school,  also  to 
remain  to  the  age  of  twenty-one.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  boy  in  Cleveland  stole  from  his  employer  $1,400  to 
go  to  Oxford  and  get  an  education.  For  several  years 
he  had  spent  all  his  evenings  in  study  and  devoted 
every  cent  he  could  save  to  the  purchase  of  books.  Be- 
ing sent  to  deposit  this  large  sum  of  money  in  the  bank 
the  temptation  was  overwhelming,  and  he  took  the 
first  train  for  New  York  and  engaged  passage  on  the 
Mauretania.  The  vice-president  of  the  corporation  by 
which  he  was  employed,  when  he  learned  of  the  cir- 
cumstances, made  the  public  announcement:  "If  he 
wants  higher  education  and  has  the  mental  qualifica- 
tions, I'll  see  that  he  gets  it."  In  former  times  this 
would  have  been  called  encouraging  crime,  and  some 
may  still  take  that  view  of  the  case,  but  to  a  fast- 


234  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

growing  number  it  will  seem  rather  to  be  encourag- 
ing honesty. 

Of  course,  if  reform  of  the  criminal  is  the  object 
of  society,  capital  punishment  must  go.  No  one  was 
ever  reformed  by  hanging,  or  even  by  electrocution. 
The  death  penalty,  at  least  as  at  present  administered, 
has  little  deterrent  power.  Facts  already  cited — the 
large  percentages  of  homicides  and  the  low  ratio  of 
executions  to  killings — testify  to  that  unmistakably. 
We  shall  soon  have  to  choose  between  the  two  horns 
of  a  logical  dilemma :  If  capital  punishment  is  to  be 
regarded  as  just  and  so  to  be  retained,  it  involves  re- 
jection of  the  theory  of  reformation  as  the  sole  end 
of  penalty;  if  reformation  is  made  the  sole  end  of 
penalty,  capital  punishment  must  be  abandoned  as  not 
only  ineffective  but  indefensible.  Society  must  of 
course  protect  itself  against  homicide,  and  at  present 
it  has  no  protection  worthy  of  the  name.  Most  homi- 
cides are  of  a  nature  that  warrants  expectation  of  no 
repetition;  society  would  be  safe  in  releasing  such 
offenders  after  a  period  of  confinement  and  discipline 
— in  short,  the  principle  of  the  indeterminate  sentence 
could  safely  be  applied  to  the  majority  of  cases  of 
this  crime.  A  small  minority  of  cases  would  require 
detention  for  life,  in  order  to  secure  adequate  protec- 
tion to  society ;  and  a  second  offense  should  always  be 
treated  in  that  manner. 

IV 

The  thing  that  cries  loudest  for  immediate  reform 
in  our  penal  system  is  the  management  of  our  prisons. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   CRIME  235 

With  a  few  honorable  exceptions,  they  are  at  present 
criminal  universities,  in  which  men  are  trained  to  go 
forth  and  prey  on  society.  They  are  officered,  in 
large  part,  by  men  who  are  themselves  criminals  in 
spirit,  and  too  often  in  act,  for  they  violate  the  law 
every  day  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  The  only 
difference  between  them  and  the  men  over  whom  they 
misuse  the  authority  of  society  is  that  they  have  man- 
aged thus  far  to  escape  conviction.  Not  only  is  the 
personnel  of  our  prisons  almost  the  worst  possible, 
but  the  management  of  most  of  them  is  as  corrupt 
and  dishonest  as  it  is  stupid.  It  is  not  extravagant  to 
say  that  two-thirds  of  the  men  in  charge  of  crim- 
inals, if  they  received  their  deserts  under  existing  laws, 
would  themselves  be  wearing  stripes. 

Society  at  large  shares  the  shame  of  these  facts,  be- 
cause it  looks  on  these  abuses  with  apathy  and  does 
not  care  about  them  enough  to  seek  a  remedy.  It  is 
shared  by  the  legislators  who  made  the  present  system 
and  those  who  fail  to  modify  it.  Bills  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  system  fail  at  session  after  session  of  Con- 
gress and  our  legislatures,  because  of  the  indifference 
of  the  great  majority  of  lawmakers  and  the  opposition 
of  a  few  who  are  interested  in  maintaining  present 
evil  conditions. 

Criminals  must  be  sent  to  prison,  as  a  place  of  de- 
tention, but  it  ought  to  be  a  sanitary  building;  the 
health  of  prisoners  should  be  a  first  consideration,  and 
humane  treatment  should  be  strictly  required.  How 
few  of  our  prisons  to-day  answer  these  elementary  re- 
quirements probably  few  people  suspect,  but  all  experts 


236  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

know  too  well.  Most  of  the  jails,  penitentiaries  and 
prisons  of  America  are  a  disgrace  to  a  civilized  peo- 
ple. Many  of  them  are  nurseries  of  tuberculosis  and 
other  contagious  diseases. 

Even  if  these  defects  were  removed,  our  penal  sys- 
tem would  still  be  fundamentally  unjust.  A  man 
who  commits  crime  must  be  detained  under  discipline 
for  a  time,  for  his  own  good  and  for  protection  of 
society.  This  is  just  and  he  has  no  cause  of  com- 
plaint so  far.  But  his  family  have  not  been  guilty, 
and  why  should  they  suffer  for  his  fault?  We  treat 
both  the  criminal  and  his  family  with  hideous  injus- 
tice, and  his  resentment  of  our  treatment  embitters 
him  and  makes  permanent  the  enmity  that  he  already 
feels  against  society.  Let  us  put  the  thief  in  prison, 
since  this  must  be  so,  but  let  him  be  there  employed  in 
some  useful  and  remunerative  labor  at  regular  wages, 
his  earnings  to  be  paid  to  his  family.  If  he  is  a  single 
man,  let  his  wages  accumulate,  and  at  his  release  on 
parole  he  will  have  a  sum  that  will  effectually  help  him 
to  begin  his  new  life. 

This  would  be  rational ;  this  would  be  humane.  But, 
instead  of  this,  what  do  we?  We  hire  out  our  pris- 
oners to  contractors  (in  most  States,  not  in  all),  and 
their  interest  is  to  get  from  the  workers  as  much 
profit  as  possible;  and  we  employ  all  the  resources  of 
prison  discipline  to  drive  these  men  like  cattle,  that 
the  contractor's  gains  may  be  as  large  as  possible. 
And  the  contractor,  paying  much  smaller  wages  than 
for  free  labor,  can  undersell  manufacturers  who  must 
depend  on  free  labor,  and  so  floods  the  market  with 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  237 

cheap  goods.  The  tendency  is,  and  often  the  result,  to 
reduce  the  wages  of  the  outside  workers  to  the  level 
of  prison  prices.  Thus  a  double  wrong  is  done  by 
the  system,  which  has  not  even  the  poor  excuse  of 
being  profitable  to  the  taxpayer,  for  it  usually  results 
in  a  heavy  deficit  in  the  prison  accounts,  which  must 
be  met  by  taxation.  Oh,  the  offense  of  this  is  rank; 
it  smells  to  heaven!  Society  is  itself  a  greater  crim- 
inal than  the  criminal  whom  it  punishes  so  cruelly. 

There  are  signs  that  the  public  is  becoming  aroused. 
In  March,  1913,  Arkansas  abolished  the  lease  system, 
after  a  spectacular  campaign  lasting  several  years,  one 
incident  of  which  was  the  pardoning  of  three  hundred 
and  sixty  convicts  at  once  by  the  governor,  on  the 
ground  that  "the  penitentiary  was  not  designed  for  a 
revengeful  hell."  Henceforth  the  convicts  are  to  be 
worked  on  a  State  farm,  which  is  believed  to  interfere 
less  with  free  labor  than  other  lines  of  production, 
and  also  prepares  men  when  released  to  secure  em- 
ployment more  easily  than  in  trades. 

The  contract  system  was  in  force  in  1913  in  the 
States  of  Alabama,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  Florida, 
Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kentucky,  Maine,  Maryland, 
Michigan,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  New 
Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  Rhode  Island,  South  Caro- 
lina, Tennessee,  Vermont,  Virginia,  West  Virginia, 
Wisconsin  and  South  Dakota.  It  is  in  our  older  com- 
monwealths, the  States  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and 
the  middle  West,  that  the  abuse  still  lingers;  with  a 
single  exception,  the  newer  States  of  the  far  West 
have  never  adopted  the  practice  or  have  discarded  it. 


238  THE  GOSPEL  OF  JESUS 

Even  in  the  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  in  which 
the  State  prisons  are  free  from  the  contract  system, 
it  still  is  found  in  the  county  workhouses  or  peniten- 
tiaries and  in  so-called  "reformatories."  No  interest 
is  promoted  by  this  system  but  the  interest  of  the  con- 
tractor. He  indeed  greatly  profits  by  a  system  that 
permits  him  to  treat  prisoners  as  slaves,  and  to  offer 
goods  so  manufactured  at  prices  with  which  free  labor 
cannot  compete,  save  at  the  penalty  of  starvation,  vice 
and  crime — a  system  that  sends  prisoners  out  at  the 
end  of  their  terms  weakened  in  body  and  perverted  in 
mind,  a  permanent  addition  to  the  burden  of  disease 
and  criminality  that  the  community  must  carry.  A 
fearful  price,  this,  to  pay  for  a  system  that  accom- 
plishes nothing  for  society  but  the  enrichment  of  a 
few  men. 

The  initial  mistake  in  our  thinking  about  a  penal 
system  has  perhaps  been  the  assumption  that  crim- 
inals must  be  confined  within  four  high  walls,  and  can 
be  employed  only  in  manufactures.  The  South  taught 
us  the  fallacy  of  this  assumption  (had  we  been  willing 
to  learn)  when  it  hired  out  its  convicts  to  contractors 
to  work  in  the  fields  and  on  the  roads;  but  the  chain- 
gang  was  in  no  other  respect  better  than  the  prison 
shop ;  the  brutality  was  as  great,  possibly  greater,  and 
while  the  health  of  the  convicts  may  have  been  bettered 
by  an  outdoor  life,  nothing  was  accomplished  for  their 
reformation.  The  South  at  length  became  conscious 
of  this  fact  and  took  the  next  step  forward :  the  estab- 
lishment of  penal  farms.  The  management  of  these, 
however,  still  leaves  much  to  be  desired;  some  of  the 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  239 

worst  brutalities  in  the  history  of  American  penology 
have  been  disclosed  in  these  penal  farms.  Certain 
Northern  States  adopted  the  idea  and  made  their 
farms  not  merely  penal  but  reformatory.  The  guards 
with  loaded  rifles  were  dispensed  with  and  the  honor 
system  was  substituted :  each  convict  admitted  to  the 
farm  is  required  to  sign  a  pledge  of  good  conduct. 
Honor  among  convicts?  Impossible,  preposterous! 
will  be  the  sneering  comment  of  many  readers.  But 
at  the  Ohio  penal  farm,  at  Mansfield,  during  a  trial  of 
ten  years,  out  of  2,600  prisoners  only  18  ever  at- 
tempted to  escape.  The  superintendent  has  no  means 
of  tracing  all  the  men  after  their  release,  but  he  be- 
lieves that  fully  65  per  cent,  live  thereafter  honest 
lives.  At  Canon  City,  Colorado,  and  Great  Meadow, 
New  York,  similar  conditions  prevail,  with  similar 
results.  The  prisoners  are  not  required  to  work  all  the 
time;  they  are  encouraged  to  play  baseball  and  foot- 
ball, and  live  a  normal  life  in  clean  surroundings. 
Treat  convicts  as  beasts  and  they  will  become  beasts, 
as  the  chain-gang  and  the  prison-shop  show;  treat 
convicts  like  men  and  they  will  become  men.  Nearly 
every  State  in  the  Union  possesses  large  tracts  of 
waste  land  which  through  the  labor  of  its  convicts 
might  be  made  to  blossom  as  the  rose,  while  the  ma- 
jority of  the  workers  would  be  reclaimed  to  lives  of 
honesty  and  productiveness. 

Employment  of  convicts  on  road  work  is  equally 
possible  and  perhaps  even  more  desirable.  It  will 
naturally  be  argued  by  many  that  convicts  employed 
in  such  labor,  unrestrained  by  guards  and  loaded  rifles, 


24O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

would  promptly  make  their  escape,  and  would  con- 
stitute a  serious  menace  to  the  surrounding  commu- 
nity. Experience  shows  that  a  few  will  escape,  but 
that  the  great  majority  will  be  faithful  to  their  pledge 
of  honor.  Oregon  had,  a  few  years  ago,  one  of  the 
worst  prison-contract  systems  in  America.  The  sys- 
tem was  abolished  and  the  convicts  were  employed 
in  road-building.  The  new  system  was  efficient  in  its 
purpose,  and  has  been  equally  efficient  in  men-build- 
ing. Moreover,  it  has  been  profitable:  formerly  the 
convicts  required  from  the  State  treasury  $40,000  a 
year  for  their  support ;  to-day  they  are  self-supporting, 
the  prisoners  are  earning  wages  for  themselves  and 
their  families,  miles  of  good  roads  contribute  to  the 
wealth  of  the  State,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  con- 
victs on  their  release  seek  and  obtain  honest  employ- 
ment. It  is  becoming  recognized  that  one  of  the  most 
urgent  needs  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  is 
good  roads.  Here  is  a  means  of  obtaining  them,  not 
only  without  expense,  but  with  great  incidental  profit 
to  the  whole  community.  How  long  shall  we  permit 
the  evils  of  our  prison  system  to  continue  unabated, 
when  the  remedy  has  been  put  into  our  very  hands? 
If  men  will  not  hear  the  call  of  humanity,  will  they 
forever  be  insensible  to  the  promptings  of  greed?  If 
they  cannot  see  their  fellow  man  in  a  convict,  can 
they  not  see  the  dollar  in  his  labor — the  dollar  that 
they  might  enjoy,  instead  of  the  contractor? 

The  Washington  State  Reformatory  is  another  il- 
lustration of  the  fact  that  the  far  West  is  taking 
the  lead  in  penology.  This  institution  is  conducted 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   CRIME  24! 

less  like  a  prison  than  a  school,  and  its  success  has 
won  for  it  the  title  of  the  University  of  Another 
Chance.  The  indeterminate  sentence,  manual  training, 
corrective  discipline,  and  the  parole  are  its  chief  fea- 
tures— nothing  novel  in  theory  or  practice,  but  still 
unusual.  Firms  and  corporations  throughout  the 
State  are  said  to  be  willing  to  give  employment  to  the 
"graduates"  of  this  school,  most  of  whom  continue  to 
give  good  account  of  themselves.  The  connection  be- 
tween crime  and  ignorance  is  so  close,  and  has  so  often 
been  commented  on,  as  itself  to  suggest  that  to  in- 
crease the  intelligence  of  criminals  is  the  best  way  to 
weaken  the  criminal  impulse.  When  the  former  crim- 
inal has  been  fitted  by  training  of  mind  and  hand  to 
do  some  honest  and  productive  work  for  society,  more 
than  half  the  inducement  to  crime  has  been  taken 
from  him  forever. 

One  is  not  ignorant  of,  nor  does  he  ignore,  the 
fact  that  a  prison  is  not  a  Sunday  school  or  a  kinder- 
garten; that  discipline  must  be  maintained  (but  what 
sort  of  discipline  ?)  ;  that  prisons  should  as  far  as 
possible  be  made  to  pay  expenses  and  not  be  a  burden 
on  the  taxpayer;  that  it  is  difficult  to  get  men  of  high 
mental  and  moral  tone  to  serve  as  wardens  and  officers 
of  a  prison;  or  any  other  piffling  objections  that  may 
be  made  to  prison  reform.  But  surely  Christian  civili- 
zation is  equal  to  the  task  of  devising  a  better  system 
than  we  now  have,  and  of  finding  men  to  work  it. 
One  cannot  argue  with  defenders  of  the  present  sys- 
tem; they  are  too  ignorant  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus,  or 


242  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

believe  it  too  little,  to  find  a  common  meeting-point 
with  those  who  believe  that  Gospel. 

If  men  will  endure  our  brutal  and  inhuman  meth- 
ods, women  will  not;  and  we  may  confidently  expect 
one  of  the  earliest  beneficent  effects  of  woman  suffrage 
to  be  the  amelioration  of  our  methods  with  criminals. 
When  we  think  of  our  filthy  jails  in  which  uncon- 
demned  and  in  many  cases  innocent  persons  are  con- 
fined; of  our  prisons  with  their  crowded  unsanitary 
cells  and  their  slave-pen  workshops;  of  our  courts 
which  savagely  send  a  man  to  prison  for  thirty  years 
for  the  theft  of  a  scarf-pin,  or  a  boy  for  stealing  a 
five-cent  soft  drink,  or  a  labor  leader  for  leading  a 
street  parade;  we  may  well  hope  with  fervency  for 
the  day  when  the  American  woman  may  be  heard  in 
our  legislatures,  and  even  in  the  holy  Congress  and 
possibly  on  the  sacrosanct  judicial  bench. 


In  the  present  state  of  civilization,  the  crime  of 
crimes  is  war.  There  was  not  a  war  during  the  nine- 
teenth century  that  was  not  wholly  unnecessary  and 
indefensible.  This  is  not  equivalent  to  saying  that 
none  of  the  warring  nations  had  a  real  grievance,  or 
it  may  be  an  unselfish  purpose.  To  say  that  war  is 
unnecessary  is  not  to  say  that  it  is  wanton  and  cause- 
less; it  is  to  say  that  peaceful  solution  of  the  diffi- 
culties was  possible,  and  that  failure  to  seek  and  find 
peaceful  solution  in  these  days  is  inexcusable.  No 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   CRIME  243 

difficulties  can  arise  between  civilized,  not  to  say 
Christian,  nations  that  cannot  be  solved  peaceably,  any 
more  than  difficulties  can  arise  between  two  civilized 
men  that  cannot  be  peacefully  settled.  We  insist,  as  a 
fundamental  postulate  of  civilization,  that  all  difficul- 
ties between  individuals  shall  be  submitted  to  the  deci- 
sion of  courts,  not  fought  out  as  in  former  ages  by 
personal  combat.  The  duel  is  no  more  obsolete  in 
civilization  than  war.  War  is  merely  a  relic  of  bar- 
barism. 

The  ideas  commonly  connoted  by  words  and 
phrases  like  "patriotism,"  "national  dignity,"  "national 
rights,"  are  as  obsolete,  barbaric  and  criminal  as  war 
itself.  Their  prevalence  among  the  people  is  one  of 
the  chief  reasons  why  war  is  still  possible.  Our 
schools  are  doing  great  mischief  in  still  propagating 
these  ideas,  under  the  wrong-headed  conviction  that 
this  is  the  way  to  make  good  citizens.  Much  of  the 
cheap  sentiment  of  newspapers  and  political  speeches 
about  "Old  Glory"  belongs  in  the  same  category. 
There  is  a  real  patriotism,  and  there  is  a  genuine 
honor  for  our  country's  symbol,  differing  widely  from 
these  shams ;  and  they  inspire  love  of  peace,  hatred  of 
war.  Real  patriotism  wishes  our  country  to  be  leader 
among  the  nations  in  promoting  peace  and  justice 
throughout  the  world,  so  that  the  flag  will  stand  for 
something  more  than  power,  and  will  be  honored 
wherever  it  flies. 

Armaments  are  unnecessary  and  inexcusable  in  our 
state  of  civilization — as  inexcusable  as  the  carrying  of 
arms  by  private  citizens.  A  man  walking  the  streets 


244  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

of  our  cities  has  exactly  the  same  justification  for 
going  armed  to  the  teeth  that  any  nation  has  for  main- 
taining standing  armies  and  navies.  His  excuse  would 
be  that  some  other  men  carry  weapons,  and  that  occa- 
sionally one  of  them  shoots  somebody,  and  he  must 
therefore  be  prepared  to  defend  himself.  It  is  quite 
true  that  hardly  a  day  passes  in  which  somebody  is 
not  shot  in  New  York,  but  few  citizens  regard  that 
fact  as  sufficient  reason  for  carrying  a  rifle  and  a  brace 
of  revolvers  down  Broadway.  Yet  in  spite  of  the 
patent  folly  of  the  thing,  the  nations  of  Europe  are 
engaged  in  a  mad  race  to  be  first  in  the  matter  of 
preparedness  for  war,  until  their  enormous  armaments 
threaten  them  with  universal  bankruptcy. 

And  we  are  urged  to  join  this  lunacy.  Our  maga- 
zines and  newspapers  abound  in  articles  inciting  our 
government  to  adopt  a  policy  of  this  kind.  Even 
as  it  is,  our  appropriations  for  war  and  its  results 
form  a  larger  proportion  of  our  annual  national  ex- 
penditure than  can  be  paralleled  in  the  budget  of  any 
European  nation,  but  this  does  not  satisfy  the  Hob- 
sons.  There  is  probably  not  a  professional  soldier  or 
sailor  who  is  not  more  or  less  obsessed  by  this  notion 
of  imminent  danger  to  the  United  States  from  attack 
by  some  foreign  power.  Now  it  is  Japan,  now  it  is 
Germany,  that  is  said  to  be  our  secret  and  deadly  foe ; 
and  horrible  are  the  descriptions  of  the  defeat  and  suf- 
fering that  would  certainly  be  ours  should  such  an  at- 
tack be  made  upon  us  in  our  present  well-nigh  de- 
fenseless state.  On  us  civilians  who  have  retained  our 
sanity,  and  can  estimate  this  rhodomontade  as  it  de- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  245 

serves,  these  professional  advocates  of  war  look  with 
pity  not  quite  unmixed  with  contempt. 

That  there  is  method  in  this  madness  we  have  be- 
gun to  suspect  and  even  to  know.  We  may  acquit 
the  professional  soldier  of  anything  worse  than  a  bias 
resulting  from  his  education  and  calling,  but  the 
civilian  advocate  of  armaments  is  too  often  the  agent 
of  corruption.  It  has  been  made  clear  in  many  ways 
that  the  creation  of  a  great  navy  is  the  inspiration  of 
"graft."  The  Steel  Trust  and  its  allies  are  those 
who  profit  chiefly  by  the  building  of  these  enormously 
expensive  ships  of  war;  just  as  in  Germany  it  has 
lately  been  proved  that  the  great  Krupp  works  have 
been  engaged  in  the  propaganda  of  warlike  sentiment, 
to  stimulate  the  demand  for  their  immense  and  costly 
guns.  Ambition  and  greed — the  ambition  of  rulers 
and  statesmen  and  generals,  and  the  greed  of  capital- 
ists— are  together  responsible  for  wars  and  arma- 
ments. If  these  two  forces  could  be  eliminated  or  con- 
trolled, there  would  never  be  another  war. 

The  workers  have  lately  awakened  to  these  facts. 
They  are  expected  to  furnish  food  for  the  powder  that 
the  ruling  class  manufactures — to  fight  and  shed  their 
blood  that  ruler  and  statesman  and  general  may  be 
called  great  and  capitalist  may  become  richer.  This 
is  the  real  meaning  of  modern  war,  however  deftly 
that  meaning  may  be  wrapped  up  in  patriotic  phrases. 
And  the  working  man  is  very  tired  of  playing  "goat," 
of  being  the  silent  and  unresisting  victim  of  this  abom- 
inable system.  The  workers  of  Europe  have  begun  to 
manifest  a  new  spirit  and  to  exercise  a  decisive  influ- 


246  THE   GOSPEL  OF  JESUS 

ence  in  the  affairs  of  nations,  by  serving  formal  no- 
tice that  they  will  endure  this  no  longer.  They  have 
virtually  declared  a  general  strike  against  war.  When 
the  conflict  broke  out  in  the  Balkans,  in  November, 
1912,  a  general  European  war  was  feared.  It  had 
long  been  predicted  that,  in  such  an  event,  the  jealousy 
of  the  chief  European  nations  regarding  the  division 
of  the  "sick  man's"  estate  would  inevitably  precipi- 
tate a  conflict.  And  for  a  time  it  looked  as  if  the 
prediction  were  certain  of  fulfilment.  Austria  and 
Germany  and  Russia  began  to  arm  themselves  and  to 
send  ultimatums,  and  the  clash  of  arms  was  expected 
to  come  to  us  on  every  breeze.  Then  something  hap- 
pened. On  November  17,  vast  numbers  of  workmen 
met  in  every  capital  of  Europe,  save  St.  Petersburg, 
and  protested  against  war.  Paris,  Berlin  and  London 
each  saw  gatherings  of  nearly  a  hundred  thousand 
men.  A  few  weeks  later  came  a  meeting  of  the  Inter- 
national Socialist  Congress  at  Berne,  where  the  great 
Cathedral  was  filled  with  a  shouting  multitude  listen- 
ing to  speeches  and  resolutions  that  proclaimed  the 
gospel  of  peace  and  good  will  to  all  the  world. 

There  was  sudden  change  in  the  atmosphere  of 
Europe.  The  war-clouds  dissolved  and  the  sun  of 
peace  shone  again  in  the  heavens.  Statesmen  who  had 
been  threatening  the  strong  and  bullying  the  weak  sud- 
denly began  to  roar  as  gently  as  a  sucking  dove.  The 
real  power  of  Europe  had  spoken — the  power  that 
usually  works  and  suffers  and  is  silent — the  power 
that  produces  the  world's  wealth  and  is  the  pillar  of 
kings'  thrones  and  the  maker  of  dukes'  coronets,  de- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   CRIME  247 

spised  and  spat  upon  by  the  great,  but  irresistible  when 
it  makes  its  will  known.  This  is  the  effective  war 
against  war.  How  are  battles  to  be  fought  and  vic- 
tories to  be  gained,  if  the  workers  will  not  fight?  For 
reasons  that  will  be  obvious  to  the  dullest,  the  capi- 
talistic press  made  only  the  most  perfunctory  refer- 
ence to  this  event,  the  most  significant  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  thus  far,  and  not  one  of  them  had  the 
insight  and  courage  to  point  out  its  significance.  It 
would  be  very  bad  policy  to  do  anything  to  develop 
the  consciousness  of  power  among  the  masses.  But 
what  was  then  done  has  been  thoroughly  apprehended 
by  the  working  classes;  and  in  spite  of  the  silence  of 
the  professed  leaders  and  instructors  of  public  opinion 
the  workers  are  gaining  some  realization,  albeit  yet 
but  dim,  of  their  real  power  and  how  it  may  be  ef- 
fectively used. 

The  ruling  ideas  of  any  age  or  people  are  the  ideas 
of  its  ruling  class.  The  classes  that  have  hitherto 
ruled  the  world,  the  aristocracy  of  birth  and  the  aris- 
tocracy of  wealth,  are  giving  place  to  democracy.  The 
world's  workers,  the  producers  of  wealth,  have  no  in- 
terest in  wars  and  armaments;  on  the  contrary,  all 
their  interests  are  on  the  side  of  universal  peace.  The 
idea  that  wars  are  necessary,  indeed  inevitable,  has 
been  carefully  fostered  and  is  still  industriously  propa- 
gated by  the  capitalistic  class  and  its  literary  hirelings, 
because  in  wars  and  armaments  they  find  immense 
profits.  A  great  financier  over  whom  the  nation  lately 
shed  abundant  crocodile  tears,  is  said  to  have  got  his 
first  start  on  his  career  as  philanthropist  and  art  con- 


248  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

noisseur  by  himself  remaining  at  home  during  the 
civil  war  and  selling  the  government  guns  that  would 
not  shoot.  On  the  whole,  capitalists  find  greater 
profits  in  armaments  than  in  wars,  but  occasional  wars 
are  necessary  to  justify  the  armaments,  as  well  as  use- 
ful in  providing  additional  territory  for  exploitation. 
The  story  has  been  often  told,  and  is  generally  be- 
lieved to  be  substantially  true,  that  an  American  capi- 
talist, who  is  also  a  journalist — or,  more  accurately, 
an  owner  of  newspapers — was  the  real  cause  of  the 
war  with  Spain.  So  confident  was  he  of  his  ability  to 
provoke  a  conflict,  that,  when  an  employee  whom  he 
had  sent  to  Cuba  to  report  the  war,  telegraphed  to  his 
chief,  "I  can't  find  any  war  here;  I  had  better  come 
home,"  he  sent  in  reply  the  message,  now  classic  in 
journalistic  circles,  "You  furnish  the  news,  and  I  will 
furnish  the  war." 

How  capitalistic  greed  inspires  wars,  the  recent  his- 
tory of  Mexico  illustrates.  President  Diaz  was  kept 
in  power  for  many  years  through  the  power  of  cap- 
ital, which  found  this  course  to  its  interest,  as  it 
meant  great  "concessions"  and  profits.  At  length,  one 
dissatisfied  clique  of  capitalists  financed  a  "revolu- 
tion." Diaz  was  overthrown  and  Madero  succeeded. 
Presently,  another  clique  precipitated  a  second  "revo- 
lution" and  Huerta  came  into  power.  Incidentally, 
Madero  lost  his  life,  which  was,  from  the  capitalistic 
point  of  view,  unfortunate,  but  he  took  a  gambler's 
chance  and  lost.  Ever  since  these  capital- fomented 
troubles  began  in  Mexico,  the  capitalistic  cliques  have 
been  doing  their  utmost,  through  the  usual  channels 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    CRIME  2149 

of  diplomacy  and  the  press,  to  induce  our  government 
to  interfere.  After  maintaining  a  policy  of  "watchful 
waiting"  for  months,  President  Wilson  sent  a  naval 
and  military  force  to  occupy  Vera  Cruz.  The  media- 
tion of  the  South  American  republics  was  then  of- 
fered and  accepted,  and  seems  likely  to  be  successful 
in  restoring  peace  to  Mexico,  at  least  for  a  time.  But, 
as  this  volume  goes  to  press,  the  American  people  are 
still  uncertain  whether  they  are  to  be  forced  into  a 
bloody  and  costly  war,  merely  to  serve  the  purposes 
of  a  band  of  greedy  plunderers. 

War  was  once  a  necessity;  it  was  the  only  means 
nations  had  of  settling  their  differences  and  righting 
their  wrongs.  Generations  ago  war  became  a  crime. 
War  is  now  an  insanity. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE   PROBLEM    OF   DISEASE 


"Be  ye  perfect,"  said  Jesus  to  his  disciples.  If  it 
be  conceded  that  ethical  perfection  only  was  in  his 
thought  (of  which  none  can  be  certain),  it  still  fol- 
lows that  ethical  perfection  is  for  most  men  impos- 
sible without  a  certain  measure  of  physical  well-be- 
ing. According  to  the  story  of  Eden,  God  made  man 
in  full  bodily  vigor  and  supplied  all  his  wants  before 
he  laid  upon  him  any  commandment.  The  Gospel 
demands  of  every  man  that  he  live  a  full,  rich,  noble 
life,  that  he  become  the  man  God  planned  him  to  be. 
Redemption  of  the  body  and  the  spirit  is  the  goal 
of  a  Christian  Christianity. 

But  this  implies  of  necessity  the  opportunity  for 
every  man  to  live  such  a  life,  and  our  social  order 
denies  such  opportunity  to  the  great  majority.  The 
disciples  of  Jesus  cannot  propose  to  themselves  any- 
thing less  than  a  perfect  human  society.  That  society 
should  be  ethically  perfect  will  perhaps  be  granted 
without  argument  to  be  a  fitting  ideal,  even  by  those 
who  have  no  faith  that  such  a  society  may  be  attained, 
or  even  approximated.  We  must  recognize  the  teach- 

250 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE 

ing  of  experience,  that  ethical  perfection  implies  also 
physical  conditions  approaching  the  perfect.  To  ex- 
pect high  ethical  life  amid  low  economic  conditions  is 
to  expect  flowers  to  bloom  on  a  bare  rock. 

"Since  the  second  century,"  says  Ritschl,  "nothing 
has  guided  the  Church  less  in  its  efforts  for  social 
amelioration  than  the  ideal  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
on  earth,  in  the  sense  in  which  Christ  and  his  apostles 
used  the  term."  A  glance  the  most  cursory  at  our 
social  conditions  finds  ample  justification  for  this  state- 
ment as  applied  to  our  own  age,  and  a  quick  flitting 
through  the  pages  of  history  brings  forth  a  like  re- 
sult regarding  the  past.  Disease,  misery,  poverty  have 
always  bound  men  as  with  chains  and  fetters,  and 
men  will  be  helpless  to  rise  until  these  bonds  have 
been  stricken  from  them.  These  things  are  here  in 
the  world,  not  by  will  of  God,  but  by  act  of  man. 
It  is  for  man  to  rid  himself  of  them,  and  to  cease 
praying  to  God  for  deliverance  from  what  man  brings 
on  himself.  The  farmer  might  as  wisely  sit  on  the 
fence  and  pray  for  a  crop,  as  for  us  to  beseech  God 
to  rid  us  of  pestilence.  Yet  most  Christian  people 
would  laugh  or  pity  if  they  saw  such  a  farmer,  while 
they  will  regard  as  irreligious  the  suggestion  that 
prayer  is  no  remedy  for  disease.  And  yet  they  would 
probably  assent  to  the  abstract  proposition  that  God 
will  not  do  for  us  what  we  are  quite  capable  of  doing 
for  ourselves. 

The  new  idea  of  the  Gospel  is  not  hostile  to  prayer 
and  does  not  belittle  divine  help;  but  it  does  lay  in- 
creasing emphasis  on  self-help,  and  it  does  try  to  put 


252  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

prayer  in  its  proper  place,  as  a  supplement  to  human 
effort,  not  a  substitute  for  it.  Above  all,  it  recog- 
nizes that  to  form  is  better  than  to  reform,  that  pre- 
vention is  better  than  cure;  or,  to  use  medical  terms, 
prophylaxis  is  more  important,  because  more  effica- 
cious/than  therapeutics.  Much  disease  may  easily  be 
prevented ;  cure  is  always  uncertain.  The  time  is  com- 
ing when  the  test  of  a  people's  civilization  will  be 
freedom  from  disease.  For  we  have  now  reached  a 
point  where  smallpox,  malaria,  yellow  fever  and  ty- 
phoid are  no  longer  diseases — they  are  crimes.  Tuber- 
culosis and  syphilis  are  not  diseases — they  are  penal- 
ties. Accordingly,  we  have  now  a  new  ideal  of  philan- 
thropy:  the  old  nursed  the  victims  of  fever  and  plague; 
the  new  exterminates  mosquitoes  and  rats.  Father 
Damien  was  the  typical  saint  of  the  old  ideal ;  Captain 
Lazear  is  the  typical  saint  of  the  new. 

Economic  reasons  urge  us  to  attempt  the  conquest 
of  disease,  quite  as  strongly  as  philanthropic.  Disease 
is  one  of  the  heaviest  taxes  on  production.  The  esti- 
mated economic  cost  of  sickness  each  year  in  the 
United  States  is  $792,892,000. 1  This  is  almost  cer- 
tainly an  underestimate.  Even  so,  it  exceeds  the  en- 
tire cotton  crop  of  1911,  which  was  valued  at  $732,- 
420,000 — the  largest  crop  ever  grown.  The  imagina- 

1  The  experience  of  Germany  is  that  40  per  cent,  of  employees 
will  be  sick  an  average  of  8.5  days  per  annum.  Estimating  the 
loss  of  wages  at  an  average  of  $1.50  a  day,  the  cost  of  medical 
attendance  at  $1.00  a  day,  and  the  economic  loss  at  50  cents 
a  day,  the  total  cost  of  sickness  among  the  33,500,000  workers 
of  the  United  States  in  1910  was  over  $792,000,000. — Rubinow, 
"Social  Insurance,"  p.  214. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   DISEASE  253 

tion  is  easily  impressed  by  the  proposition  to  destroy 
the  whole  of  our  greatest  crop  of  cotton.  We  can 
figure  to  ourselves  something  of  the  widespread  misery 
and  ruin  that  would  result,  and  also  comprehend  how 
every  one  of  us  would  ultimately  feel  that  loss,  in  the 
enhanced  cost  of  cotton  goods.  We  find  it  more  diffi- 
cult to  realize  that  each  year  an  equivalent  tax  for 
sickness  is  assessed  on  us,  and  that  we  pay  in  that 
cost  of  living  about  which  we  grumble.  Nothing  can 
be  more  certain  than  that  eventually  it  is  we  who  pay 
for  our  neighbor's  sickness.  To  play  the  priest  and 
Levite,  and  pass  by  on  the  other  side,  is  only  a  tem- 
porary evasion  of  our  responsibility;  the  bill  for  the 
sick  and  wounded  stranger  will  one  day  be  presented 
to  us  in  such  wise  that  we  cannot  refuse  to  pay.  It 
will  be  cheaper  for  us,  as  well  as  more  humane  and 
more  Christian,  to  play  the  Good  Samaritan  and  take 
out  our  two  pence  at  once. 

The  great  scourges  of  the  past  are  under  control, 
some  are  disappearing  and  none  are  now  a  great  men- 
ace to  America,  though  they  may  for  some  time  con- 
tinue to  afflict  other  parts  of  the  earth.  The  Great 
White  Plague,  the  Great  Black  Plague,  anaemia  and 
alcoholism  are  the  chief  scourges  of  the  race  to-day. 
Once  we  subdue  these  four  great  enemies,  we  may 
count  the  victory  over  disease  virtually  won.  There 
will  remain,  not  great  campaigns  to  be  fought,  but  a 
guerrilla  warfare  to  be  waged,  until,  band  by  band, 
all  the  foes  will  be  subdued.  That  task  will  be  annoy- 
ing, and  perhaps  long-drawn-out,  but  it  will  be  noth- 


254  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

ing  in  comparison  to  our  present  difficulties  and  dan- 
gers. 

II 

As  yet  we  are  only  feeling  our  way  to  better  meth- 
ods ;  old  ideas  and  old  methods  still  hold  the  great  ma- 
jority in  their  grip.  Our  confused  thinking,  the  natural 
result  of  this  transition,  makes  us  uncertain  in  both 
aim  and  procedure,  so  we  fumble  and  fail.  When  we 
first  became  aroused  to  the  ravages  of  tuberculosis 
and  the  possibility  of  curing  the  great  majority  of 
cases  in  the  initial  stage  of  the  disease,  we  had  a 
national  spasm  of  zeal  for  the  establishment  of  sana- 
toriums  and  camps  for  the  open-air  cure.  Enormous 
sums,  each  year  growing  in  actual  and  proportional 
amount,  are  expended  in  this  hopeless  and  futile  effort. 
In  the  year  1912  nearly  $19,000,000  (so  it  is  esti- 
mated by  the  national  society  for  the  cure  of  tuber- 
culosis) was  spent  in  the  United  States  in  this  way. 
There  are  no  figures  available  for  the  sum  spent  in 
prevention,  but  it  was  doubtless  trifling  in  comparison. 
And  probably  nobody,  certainly  nobody  of  authority, 
would  maintain  that  any  impression  worth  mentioning 
was  made  on  the  Great  White  Plague  by  this  immense 
expenditure.  There  were  unquestionably  more  new 
cases  than  cures  during  the  year. 

Even  with  our  imperfect  methods  of  registration, 
it  is  known  that  180,000  persons  died  of  this  disease 
in  1912,  and  the  real  number  was  probably  in  excess 
of  200,000.  In  some  classes  the  mortality  is  excep- 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   DISEASE  255 

tionally  high :  90  per  cent,  of  the  deaths  of  employees 
in  the  textile  industries  are  from  tuberculosis,  most 
of  which  are  easily  preventable.  The  shuttles  used  in 
many  mills  are  known  as  "suction  shuttles"  :  in  thread- 
ing them  the  weaver  sucks  the  thread  or  yarn  through 
an  opening,  incidentally  filling  his  throat  and  lungs 
with  lint,  promoting  bronchial  troubles  and  inhaling 
tuberculosis  germs  deposited  by  a  diseased  worker. 
Shuttles  used  thus  by  tubercular  operatives  and  well 
alike,  become  direct  causes  of  infection.  Attempts  to 
prohibit  their  use  have  been  stoutly  opposed  by  em- 
ployers. Capitalists  would  rather  kill  off  a  large  per- 
centage of  their  workers  every  year  than  go  to  the 
expense  of  new  equipment.  Human  life  is  cheaper 
than  machinery. 

Tuberculosis  is,  for  reasons  not  yet  understood,  a 
greater  menace  to  some  races  than  to  others.  Poles, 
Italians  and  members  of  the  numerous  Slav  races  are 
comparatively  immune;  while  the  Irish  are  peculiarly 
susceptible,  especially  in  the  second  generation  on 
American  soil,  and  native-born  Americans  of  all  ori- 
gins contract  this  disease  far  more  easily  than  immi- 
grants. We  cannot  dismiss  this  as  a  problem  that  only 
remotely  concerns  us — there  is  none  more  intimate  or 
pressing.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  not  a  problem  of 
America  alone ;  40  per  cent,  of  the  deaths  from  disease 
in  Germany  are  from  tuberculosis.  And  there,  as 
here,  money  is  spent  too  exclusively  on  cure  of  indi- 
viduals. It  is  said  that  $60,000,000  have  been  spent  in 
recent  years  in  building  workingmen's  homes  and 


256  THE   GOSPEL  OF   JESUS 

$20,000,000  for  hospitals  and  sanatoriums,  in  the  vain 
hope  of  coping  with  the  scourge. 

Socially  speaking,  the  only  way  to  cure  tuberculosis 
is  to  prevent  it.  And  this  is  not  difficult,  because  we 
now  know  that  the  real  cause  of  this  disease  is  mal- 
nutrition, underfeeding.  The  bacilli  or  "germs'*  of 
tuberculosis  are  practically  omnipresent  in  the  air,  and 
every  person  takes  them  into  his  system.  The  only 
reason  why  we  do  not  all  of  us  fall  victims  to  this 
disease,  apart  from  constitutional  immunity  of  some, 
is  that  most  of  us  are  able  to  maintain  well-nourished 
and  vigorous  bodies.  The  bacilli  cannot  effect  lodg- 
ment in  a  healthy  body ;  we  breathe  them  in,  and  they 
attempt  to  make  a  home  in  our  throats  and  lungs  and 
our  bodies  rally  their  forces  and  kill  them  before 
they  can  do  any  damage.  But  when  bacilli  enter  a 
body  weakened  by  underfeeding,  or  lodge  in  throats 
and  lungs  inflamed  by  dust  or  poisonous  gases,  they 
find  a  fertile  soil  for  growth.  Tuberculosis  is  a  disease 
of  tenements  and  factories,  in  the  main,  and  flourishes 
among  the  poor.  Comparatively  few  of  the  well-to-do 
are  attacked,  and  among  them  the  disease  is  curable  in 
the  majority  of  cases,  if  taken  in  hand  in  time,  by 
giving  the  body  what  it  has  lacked,  plenty  of  nour- 
ishing food  and  fresh  air.  These  expensive  luxuries 
are  quite  beyond  the  reach  of  the  poor,  so  they  die. 

A  large  proportion  of  working  people,  using  that 
term  in  its  usual  sense  of  manual  workers,  suffer  from 
anaemia,  or  poverty  of  the  blood,  because  they  are  con- 
tinually underfed.  This  does  not  mean  that  they  do 
not  have  "enough  to  eat"  in  the  ordinary  usage  of 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE  257 

those  words;  it  means  that  they  do  not  have  enough 
nourishing  food  to  keep  their  bodies  up  to  a  fair 
standard  of  efficiency.  It  is  one  thing  to  silence  the 
cravings  of  hunger;  it  is  quite  a  different  thing  to 
satisfy  the  needs  of  the  body.  To  gratify  the  appe- 
tite is  not  necessarily  to  be  fed.  Malnutrition  includes 
not  merely  underfeeding,  in  the  sense  of  insufficient 
quantity  of  food,  but  improper  feeding,  the  giving  of 
unfit  and  contaminated  food.  Malnutrition  in  this 
sense  is  the  cause  of  the  frightful  infant  mortality  that 
prevails  throughout  our  country,  especially  in  our 
cities.  Three  hundred  thousand  infants  under  a  year 
old  die  every  year  in  the  United  States.  One  calls  this 
mortality  frightful,  because  it  is  believed  that,  while 
malnutrition  is  responsible  for  the  death  of  50  per 
cent,  of  people  of  all  ages,  it  causes  85  per  cent,  of 
infant  mortality.  That  this  high  rate  is  due  to  easily 
preventable  causes  is  necessary  inference  from  the  fact 
that  in  the  poor  quarters  of  our  cities  373  infants  of 
every  thousand  die  before  completing  their  first  year, 
while  in  the  better  residence  districts  the  mortality  is 
156  in  the  thousand.  And  that  even  this  is  extrava- 
gantly high  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  in  New  Zea- 
land infant  mortality  is  sixty-eight  to  the  thousand. 
We  have  only  recently  begun  to  think  of  New  Zealand 
as  a  civilized  country,  but  it  has  surpassed  us  greatly 
in  one  of  the  prime  essentials  of  civilization,  providing 
security  for  human  life. 

Cure  of  malnutrition  is  therefore  sor.v  thing  more 
and  other  than  insuring  more  food  and  cheaper  food 
for  all  people :  it  also  means  good  food.  Much  of  that 


258  THE  GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

sold  in  the  markets,  even  that  bought  at  high  prices 
by  the  rich,  is  not  good  food.  The  campaign  for 
pure-food  laws  has  brought  to  light  many  adultera- 
tions and  substitutions  that  are  hurtful,  as  well  as 
some  that  are  merely  dishonest;  and  enforcement  of 
such  laws  as  we  have  has  done  something  to  improve 
the  quality  of  our  foods.  But  in  many  cases  the  law 
does  not  attempt  to  prevent  some  of  the  most  serious 
impairments  of  our  daily  foods.  This  is  especially 
true  of  the  cereals  that  form  so  large  a  part  of  our 
diet.  All  cereals  have  an  outer  husk,  composed  mainly 
of  mineral  matter  and  of  no  food  value.  But  imme- 
diately inside  of  this  husk  is  a  thin,  dark-colored  layer, 
which  contains  phosphates  and  organic  substances  that 
constitute  an  essential  part  of  cereal  food  value.  One 
of  these  constituents  is  a  crystalline  organic  base,  to 
which  the  name  "vitamine"  has  been  given.  The  vita- 
mines  are  found  in  all  cereals  and  their  presence  in 
food  is  necessary  to  proper  metabolism.  Their  ab- 
sence causes  progressive  degeneration  of  the  nervous 
system,  culminating  in  fatal  disease. 

In  the  Orient,  where  rice  is  the  staple  cereal,  and 
with  many  people  the  chief  food,  the  preparation  of 
this  grain  for  market  removes  the  whole  of  this  brown 
outer  envelope,  leaving  the  polished,  glistening  white 
rice  with  which  all  are  familiar.  There  is  little  nutri- 
ment in  this  but  starch.  The  result  of  an  exclusive 
diet  of  this  rice  is  the  disease  known  as  beri-beri,  a 
polyneuritis  that  finally  manifests  itself  in  disorders  as 
apparently  different  as  paralysis,  hypertrophy  of  the 
heart  and  dropsy.  Since  rice  is  less  used  among  us, 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE  259 

the  danger  of  our  contracting  beri-beri  is  slight;  but 
the  same  (or,  at  all  events,  a  similar)  disease  is  caused 
by  an  exclusive  diet  of  bread  made  from  the  ordinary 
white  wheat  flour  of  commerce,  which  is  the  staple  of 
diet  in  many  families.  Thousands  of  poor  people 
make  two  meals  every  day  of  bread  and  tea  exclu- 
sively, and  their  bread  is  made  from  white  flour.  The 
process  of  making  our  ordinary  white  flour  inge- 
niously removes  from  it  every  trace  of  the  vitamines 
whose  presence  is  essential  to  health.  When  Sylves- 
ter Graham  taught  our  grandmothers  to  make  bread 
of  flour  composed  of  the  whole  wheat  berry,  he  was 
on  the  right  track,  though  he  did  not  have  the  cor- 
rect scientific  basis  for  his  teaching.  Still  better  than 
the  "graham"  flour  of  commerce  is  a  "whole  wheat" 
flour,  that  eliminates  the  silicate  husk,  while  it  retains 
the  phosphates  and  vitamines  so  essential  to  nutrition. 
People  who  have  a  varied  diet  are  not  seriously 
harmed  by  the  absence  of  vitamines  in  their  bread; 
other  articles  of  food  supply  the  missing  ingredient. 
But  people  who  rely  on  bread  as  a  chief  food  should 
by  all  means  choose  that  made  of  whole  wheat  flour.1 
Ignorance,  as  we  see  from  this,  may  be  the  cause 
of  malnutrition,  no  less  than  poverty.  No  doubt  the 
infant  mortality  of  the  tenements  is  much  increased 
by  ignorance.  When  medical  inspectors  find  mothers 
giving  such  viands  as  sausage  and  cabbage  to  infants 

1As  this  is  not  a  treatise  on  dietetics,  these  sample  Instances 
must  suffice.  For  further  particulars,  readers  are  referred  to 
"Starving  America,"  an  excellent  popular  discussion  of  dietetics, 
from  the  commercial  as  well  as  the  hygienic  point  of  view. 


26O  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

* 

of  a  few  weeks,  it  is  evident  that  more  food  and  bet- 
ter food  is  not  the  only  need  of  such  people;  they  also 
need  elementary  instruction  in  the  care  of  infants.  It 
is  the  greater  intelligence  of  the  well-to-do,  no  less 
than  their  ability  to  provide  better  food,  that  decreases 
the  death-rate  among  their  children.  And  so  any  pro- 
gram for  the  prevention  of  disease  must  include,  as 
one  of  its  most  prominent  features,  systematic  pop- 
ular lectures,  illustrated  with  the  lantern  and  the  mov- 
ing picture,  that  will  teach  the  poor  how  to  care  for 
their  children.  Good  housing  and  a  living  wage  will 
come  near  completing  the  list  of  things  to  be  done,  so 
far  as  the  homes  of  the  poor  enter  into  the  problem. 

The  establishment,  with  the  opening  of  the  year 
1913,  of  a  Children's  Bureau  in  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labor  will  accomplish  much,  by  sys- 
tematic study  of  the  facts  and  collection  of  them  into 
trustworthy  statistics,  toward  solution  of  our  prob- 
lem. The  first  report,  made  in  January,  1914,  by  the 
chief  of  this  new  Bureau,  Julia  C.  Lathrop,  is  not  only 
the  first  document  of  the  kind  printed  by  our  Federal 
government,  but  one  of  unusual  significance  in  itself. 
It  takes  as  its  starting  point  the  figures  of  the  Census 
Bureau,  that  300,000  infants  die  annually  in  the 
United  States,  of  whom  at  least  half  would  live  if 
known  measures  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  were  ap- 
plied in  our  communities.  Subjects  for  immediate  in- 
quiry by  the  Bureau  are  said  to  be :  infant  mortality, 
birth  rate,  orphanage,  juvenile  courts,  desertion,  dan- 
gerous occupations,  accidents  and  diseases  of  chil- 
dren, employment,  and  legislation  affecting  chil- 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE  26l 

dren.  Not  all  of  these  are  directly  connected  with  the 
problem  of  disease,  but  all  are  connected  with  social 
problems  that  we  are  greatly  interested  to  understand 
and  solve.  We  have  reason  to  congratulate  ourselves 
that  Uncle  Sam,  at  our  urgent  bidding,  has  at  last 
undertaken  to  do  as  much  for  our  children  as  he  long 
ago  did  for  our  cattle  and  hogs.1 

It  is  not  popular  ignorance,  perhaps,  that  is  the 
greatest  bar  to  progress  in  dealing  with  disease.  Quite 
as  general,  and  far  more  disgraceful,  is  the  ignorance 
of  our  legislators,  journalists,  ministers,  and  the  rest 
of  our  educated  class  who  lead  and  express  public 
opinion.  Not  only  are  they  densely  ignorant  of  the 
problem  as  a  whole,  but  they  are  not  in  the  least  aware 
of  what  has  been  done  to  make  its  solution  possible 
both  in  theory  and  in  practice.  They  do  not  know,  and 
they  are  reluctant  to  believe  when  told,  what  has  actu- 
ally been  done  here  and  there  to  cope  successfully  with 
disease.  It  is  almost  a  wilful  ignorance  on  their  part, 
for  knowledge  is  so  easily  accessible.  There  is  already 
a  literature  of  public  hygiene  almost  as  large  as  the 
literature  of  bridge  or  golf.  And  yet,  each  time  a 
remedial  measure  is  suggested  it  is  received  and  de- 
bated as  if  it  were  an  absolutely  new  and  untried  idea, 
and  our  most  intelligent  citizens  will  gravely  pro- 
nounce absurd  and  impracticable  that  which  European 
countries  have  had  in  successful  operation  for  more 

1  This  is  not  quite  exact.  Last  year  (1913)  Uncle  Sam  spent 
$7,699,191  on  the  Bureaus  devoted  to  the  welfare  of  animals 
and  crops,  and  a  beggarly  $31,000  for  children.  Chief  Lathrop 
asks  for  $165,000  for  1914. 


262  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

than  a  generation.  This  is  one  of  the  most  discourag- 
ing features  of  the  situation  and  is  possibly  the  chief 
cause  of  our  slow  progress. 

In  order  to  lessen  ignorance,  popular  or  otherwise, 
States  and  municipalities  should  provide  suitable  liter- 
ature for  general  circulation,  and  supplement  this  with 
illustrated  lectures  about  personal  health  and  home 
sanitation.  The  sooner  this  is  done  on  a  large  scale, 
systematically,  persistently,  the  better  will  become  the 
prospect  of  overcoming  disease.  Much  of  this  instruc- 
tion could  be  given  in  factories  and  stores.  Instruc- 
tion in  first  aid  should  be  given  to  all  workers,  and 
every  workshop  where  machinery  is  used  should  be 
required  by  law  to  keep  at  hand  all  appliances  neces- 
sary to  treat  accidents.  Increased  efficiency  of  work- 
ers would  repay  all  costs.  The  trades  unions  might 
be  encouraged  also  to  have  such  instruction  given  at 
their  meetings.  Boards  of  health  should  be  empow- 
ered to  inspect  all  places  where  people  are  employed, 
not  merely  as  now  to  see  that  the  premises  are  kept  in 
good  sanitary  condition,  but  to  have  general  oversight 
of  the  health  of  the  workers.  This  would  imply  that 
power  should  be  intrusted  to  them  to  require  those 
likely  to  become  ill  or  incapacitated,  and  in  conse- 
quence to  become  a  burden  to  family  or  community, 
to  undergo  suitable  medical  or  surgical  treatment.  In 
short,  to  keep  men  well  is  more  economical  than  to  cure 
them  after  they  have  become  sick. 

Conditions  of  workers  and  buildings  are  often  a 
disgrace  to  our  present  means  of  caring  for  the  pub- 
lic health.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  at  length  into 


THE    PROBLEM    OF   DISEASE  263 

loathsome  and  sickening  particulars,  that  have  been 
discovered  by  inspectors,  official  and  volunteer,  and 
published  where  all  might  read  them  who  would.  It 
is  enough  to  say  that  in  canneries  and  other  factories 
for  preparation  of  foods,  workers  have  been  found 
in  large  numbers  who  suffer  from  virulent  eye,  skin, 
and  scalp  diseases ;  while  buildings  were  overrun  with 
fleas,  rats,  and  other  vermin.  We  may  be  certain 
that  if  people  realized  the  conditions  under  which  their 
foods  are  often  prepared,  they  would  not  only  refuse 
to  buy  and  eat  them,  but  would  make  such  emphatic 
protest  that  something  would  be  speedily  done  by  negli- 
gent or  corrupt  officials  who  now  wink  at  such  a  state 
of  things.  Our  national  carelessness  in  such  things  is 
really  astounding.  The  objections  that  both  employ- 
ers and  employed  almost  always  make  to  any  improve- 
ment in  such  conditions  invariably  disappear  as  both 
become  assured  that  this  is  part  of  that  increase  of 
efficiency  that  society  is  now  seeking,  and  finds  so 
profitable  whenever  it  is  attained. 

Next  to  underfeeding,  overcrowding  stands  as  the 
great  cause  of  disease,  and  the  bad  ventilation,  or  no 
ventilation,  that  invariably  accompanies  overcrowding. 
This  is  especially  manifest  in  most  of  the  "occupa- 
tional diseases,"  which  might  be  reduced  to  negligible 
proportions  by  requiring  decent  sanitation  of  all  work- 
shops and  stores,  admission  of  abundant  light,  free 
use  of  water,  and  scientific  ventilation  to  remove  dust 
and  poisonous  gases,  as  well  as  to  admit  fresh  air.  The 
gravity  of  occupational  diseases  is  not  rightly  appre- 
hended, because  the  total  number  of  victims  to  each 


264  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

disorder  seems  small ;  yet,  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  workers,  deaths  or  total  disabilities  are  often 
alarmingly  large.  Some  of  these  diseases  are  as  old 
as  trades  themselves.  So  long  as  there  have  been 
tailors  and  shoemakers,  certain  diseases  have  attacked 
workers  of  these  trades,  in  consequence  of  their  seden- 
tary and  stooping  labor.  But  rise  of  new  industries 
and  new  conditions  of  work  has  been  occasion  for 
many  new  diseases  and  aggravation  of  many  old. 

Authorities  on  occupational  diseases  have  suggested 
their  division  into  four  classes:  Those  due  to  dust, 
to  chemical  poisons,  to  germ  infections,  and  to  the 
physical  conditions  of  labor. 

Diseases  of  the  respiratory  organs  are  caused  or 
aggravated  by  dust.  An  inflamed  condition  of  the 
mucous  membranes  results  from  constant  breathing  of 
dust-laden  air,  which  favorably  disposes  workers  to 
contract  tuberculosis,  bronchitis,  pneumonia.  Dyspep- 
sia and  diseases  of  the  digestive  tract  come  next.  The 
metal  polisher  lives  on  the  average  only  fifteen  years 
after  learning  his  trade.  The  stone-cutter's  trade  is 
most  hazardous  of  all,  his  chance  of  death  being  much 
greater  than  that  of  the  soldier  in  battle.  An  average 
mortality  of  about  25  in  1,000  in  the  dusty  trades 
from  tuberculosis  alone,  and  of  about  300  from  all 
diseases,  speaks  eloquently  of  the  dangers  faced  by 
those  who  practice  them.  Most  of  this  mortality  could 
be  prevented  by  use  of  fans  and  scientific  ventilation. 

Chemical  poisoning  is  quite  as  dangerous  and 
equally  preventable.  All  workers  in  lead  are  subject 
to  this  danger,  and  the  number  of  trades  in  which 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE  265 

lead  is  used  in  some  form  is  legion.  Lead  poisoning 
is  the  more  dangerous  because  it  is  so  insidious  and 
is  cumulative,  not  immediate.  For  months  or  even 
years  the  worker  notices  nothing,  when  suddenly  the 
cumulative  force  of  the  poison  in  the  system  asserts 
itself  and  he  collapses.  Indigestion,  lack  of  appetite 
and  other  symptoms  may  give  him  warning ;  or  paraly- 
sis may  suddenly  disable  him  entirely.  Transient  or 
temporary  blindness,  deafness,  loss  of  taste  and  smell, 
are  some  of  the  other  results.  Lead  poisoning  does 
not  kill  so  many  outright  as  some  other  forms  of  oc- 
cupational diseases,  but  the  damage  it  does  to  gen- 
eral health  and  efficiency  is  often  more  serious  eco- 
nomically than  death  would  be.  In  this  case  air  and 
water  are  the  great  preventives.  If  shops  and  fac- 
tories where  lead  is  used  were  properly  ventilated,  and 
if  workers  were  not  only  encouraged  but  compelled  to 
practice  frequent  ablutions,  absorption  of  lead  would 
be  greatly  reduced  and  the  health  of  workers  much 
benefited.  A  certain  amount  of  danger  is  inseparable 
from  use  of  poisons  in  manufactures,  but  care  will 
eliminate  the  greater  part  of  the  risk. 

Trades  in  which  mercury  and  phosphorus  are  used 
are  more  dangerous  than  the  lead  trades,  as  these  poi- 
sons act  more  quickly  and  are  more  rapidly  absorbed. 
Mercury  is  absorbed  through  the  skin,  and  also  as 
dust  and  vapor  through  the  lungs.  Its  effects  are 
manifested  in  "salivation"  and  loss  of  teeth,  and  later 
by  ulcerations  on  the  body  or  in  the  internal  organs. 
It  is  much  more  likely  to  be  fatal  than  lead  poisoning. 
The  fumes  of  phosphorus  are  inhaled  by  match 


266  THE    GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

workers,  and  a  frequent  effect  is  what  is  known  in  the 
trade  as  "fossy"  jaw,  ulceration  of  the  teeth  and  decay 
of  the  jaw  bone,  accompanied  with  great  suffering  and 
often  terminating  in  death.  It  seems  impossible  to 
take  sufficient  precautions  to  make  phosphorus  safe 
to  handle,  and  the  only  course  is  to  use  some  other 
substance  in  the  making  of  matches.1  This  has  now 
been  done  by  some  manufacturers,  and  should  be  re- 
quired from  all.  People  can  help  by  refusing  to  buy 
the  ordinary  cheap  "parlor"  match.  No  matter  how 
cheaply  the  phosphorus  match  of  commerce  can  be 
made  and  sold,  any  article  is  too  dear  whose  making 
requires  the  needless  sacrifice  of  human  life. 

Many  occupations  bring  workers  incidentally  or  ac- 
cidentally in  contact  with  infected  materials,  from 
which  they  contract  diseases.  This  is  inseparable 
from  certain  occupations,  and  cannot  be  minimized  by 
any  known  process.  This  is  true  of  tanners  and  fur- 
riers; the  skins  that  form  the  raw  material  of  their 
trades  come  from  animals  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
and  contain  germs  of  various  diseases.  Any  process 
of  disinfection  would  injure  the  skin  or  fur  or  both, 
and  the  workers  have  to  take  their  chance.  Anthrax 
and  tetanus  are  among  the  diseases  thus  contracted; 
fortunately  the  cases  are  infrequent,  for  they  are  gen- 
erally fatal.  Those  in  the  woolen,  shoddy,  and  paper 
industries,  in  which  the  sorting  over  of  old  rags  is 
part  of  the  work,  often  acquire  diseases  from  infected 
rags.  These,  however,  are  almost  entirely  preventable 

1  On  phosphorus  poisoning  in  industries,  see  a  valuable  paper 
in  the  Bulletins  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  Vol.  XX,  pp.  31  seq. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE  267 

through  disinfection  by  live  steam,  and  diseases  of  this 
kind  should  be  classified  henceforth  under  the  head  of 
criminal  negligence. 

There  remain  the  diseases  caused  by  physical  condi- 
tions of  labor,  including  the  various  forms  of  over- 
exertion.  These  are  most  numerous  of  all,  and  if  it 
were  necessary  for  our  purpose  they  might  be  sub- 
divided into  several  sections.  Some  of  these  diseases 
are  relatively  new.  There  is  caisson  disease,  which  at- 
tacks those  who  labor  in  laying  foundations  to  our 
modern  skyscrapers,  and  building  tunnels  under  rivers, 
requiring  them  to  spend  some  hours  each  day  in  com- 
pressed air.  The  transition  from  normal  air  pressure 
to  that  of  several  atmospheres  in  the  caisson,  and  vice 
versa,  is  each  time  a  strain  on  the  body,  which  after 
a  while  results  in  dizziness,  neuralgic  pains,  and  a  form 
of  paralysis  known  among  workers  as  "the  bends," 
which  usually  terminates  in  death.  New  York  now 
limits  work  under  air  pressure  of  over  twenty-eight 
pounds  to  three  hours  a  period,  with  at  least  an  hour's 
intermission.  Great  heat  and  rapid  changes  of  tem- 
perature among  glass  workers,  iron  workers,  and 
paper  makers  are  fruitful  causes  of  disease.  Precau- 
tions easily  taken  would  greatly  reduce  these  dangers. 
Overwork  is  possible  anywhere  and  occurs  almost 
everywhere.  It  may  be  defined  as  incurring  more 
fatigue  in  any  one  day  than  can  be  made  good  by  the 
night's  rest.  Where  this  habitually  takes  place,  there 
must  be  regular  physical  degeneration,  until  the  point 
of  breakdown  is  reached.  The  remedy  for  this  is  the 
introduction  of  all  labor-saving  methods  and  devices 


268  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

possible  (not  so-called  labor-saving  machinery,  be  it 
noted),  and  the  shortening  of  the  hours  of  labor  as 
rapidly  as  possible. 

With  regard  to  most  of  these  occupational  diseases, 
proper  statutes  regulating  sanitation  of  stores  and  fac- 
tories, drawn  by  sanitary  experts,  and  based  on  in- 
vestigations already  made  by  government  experts,  pro- 
viding for  effective  inspection  by  boards  of  health, 
with  power  to  close  any  building  until  it  is  made  to 
comply  with  the  law,  must  be  our  chief  reliance.  Such 
statutes  in  all  our  States  would  work  wonders  toward 
prevention  of  this  form  of  disease,  and  advancement 
of  public  health. 

Ill 

Only  the  parsimony  and  indifference  of  the  people, 
first  of  all,  and  the  corruption  and  inefficiency  of  the 
men  they  have  chosen  as  legislators  in  the  second 
place,  prevent  the  speedy  eradication  of  several  dis- 
eases that  now  scourge  the  American  people.  More  of 
our  people  die  every  year  of  typhoid  than  were  slain 
in  the  war  between  Japan  and  Russia ;  more  die  every 
week  than  went  down  with  the  Titanic.  Every  one 
of  these  deaths  is  preventable  with  our  present  knowl- 
edge of  the  disease.  In  fact,  they  should  not  be  called 
deaths,  but  murders.  With  a  pure  water  supply  most 
cases  could  never  occur ;  reasonable  precautions  would 
prevent  the  carrying  of  contagion  by  other  means.  But 
inoculation  with  anti-typhoid  serum  is  a  practically 
complete  preventive.  This  has  been  absolutely  proved 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   DISEASE  269 

by  the  experience  of  our  Army  and  Navy  in  the  past 
few  years.  In  1911  there  were  222  cases  of  typhoid 
in  the  Navy.  In  1912  the  requirement  of  inoculation 
became  operative  and  among  the  26,000  persons  in 
the  service  there  was  but  one  case  of  typhoid,  and  that 
was  very  mild  and  issued  in  speedy  recovery.  A  cir- 
cular of  the  War  Department,  issued  in  February, 
1913,  says  that  in  the  war  of  1898,  among  120,000 
soldiers,  there  were  20,730  cases  of  typhoid  and  1,590 
deaths.  In  1912  among  61,405  officers  and  men  in 
the  United  States  proper  there  were  18  cases  of  ty- 
phoid. The  ratio  decreased  from  6.74  in  1901  to  .376 
in  the  first  six  months  of  1912.  The  difference  that 
has  taken  place  in  little  more  than  a  decade  is  strik- 
ingly shown  in  this  comparison:  in  1898,  among  10,- 
759  men  encamped  at  Jacksonville,  Florida,  there  were 
1,729  cases;  in  1911,  in  a  similar  encampment  at  San 
Antonio,  Texas,  62,801  were  gathered  with  only  a 
single  case.  Could  there  be  a  more  effective  demon- 
stration that  typhoid  is  preventable,  aud  that  the  multi- 
tudes who  die  of  it  every  year  are  a  totally  unneces- 
sary sacrifice? 

Yet  there  are  among  us,  unfortunately,  thousands 
of  poor  deluded  fools  who  continue  to  protest  against 
all  forms  of  inoculation  and  vaccination,  and  anti- 
toxins and  serums,  and  oppose  with  even  more  vehe- 
mence the  vivisection  by  means  of  which  these  reme- 
dies have  been  discovered  and  made  available.  It  is, 
indeed,  well  for  the  prospects  of  the  race  and  social 
improvement  in  the  coming  years  that  these  uncon- 
scious enemies  of  their  kind  are  as  uninfluential  as  they 


2JO  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

are  relatively  few.  And  yet  they  are  both  sufficiently 
numerous  and  sufficiently  successful  in  affecting  the 
attitude  of  many  toward  medical  progress  to  justify 
us  in  recalling  what  vivisection  has  done,  and  what 
we  may  therefore  hope  it  will  do  in  future.  Vivisec- 
tion, in  its  technical  meaning,  includes  any  and  every 
experiment  made  upon  the  living  body.  When  Cap- 
tain Lazear  offered  himself  as  the  subject  of  an  experi- 
ment to  determine  whether  the  bite  of  a  mosquito 
would  convey  yellow  fever,  he  was  engaged  in  the 
horrible  practice  of  vivisection  in  its  most  horrible 
form — experimentation  on  a  human  being.  But  he 
offered  himself  for  this  purpose  because  determination 
of  a  scientific  fact,  on  which  the  welfare  and  safety 
of  mankind  greatly  depended,  could  be  reached  in  no 
other  way.  He  lost  his  life  and  we  honor  him  as  a 
hero,  but  if  that  point  could  as  well  have  been  deter- 
mined by  having  a  mosquito  bite  a  rabbit  his  fitting 
epitaph  would  be,  "Died  as  the  fool  dieth." 

That  men  have  the  right  to  use  the  lower  animals  in 
any  way  that  will  advance  the  interests  of  mankind  is 
an  ethical  principle  that  the  great  majority  will  not 
question  for  ages  to  come,  if  ever.  Denial  of  this 
principle  is  too  sublimated  ethics  for  a  race  that  con- 
sumes animal  food  daily.  We  shall  do  well  for  a  few 
centuries  to  come  if  we  approximate  more  nearly  the 
ethics  of  Jesus,  who  said  to  his  disciples:  "Ye  are  of 
more  value  than  many  sparrows,"  and  "Of  how  much 
more  value  then  is  a  man  than  a  sheep  ?"  Unnecessary 
cruelty  is  quite  another  matter,  and  no  reasonable  per- 
son would  deny  that  experimentation  with  animals 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE 

should  be  restricted  to  experts  conducting  scientific  re- 
search, and  that  everything  should  be  done  to  make 
such  experimentation  as  humane  as  possible.  This 
comes  far  short  indeed  of  a  sweeping  denial  of  the 
right  of  vivisection. 

That  medicine  is  to-day  in  any  sense  a  science  and 
has  progressed  beyond  the  mediaeval  empiricism  is  due 
almost  wholly  to  vivisection.  Every  time  that  we  call 
in  a  physician  we  experience  the  benefits  of  such  in- 
vestigation and  participate  in  the  discoveries  made.  A 
list  was  prepared  some  years  ago  by  Dr.  W.  W.  Keen, 
of  Philadelphia,  one  of  the  foremost  surgeons  of 
America,  briefly  setting  forth  the  progress  of  medical 
science  by  this  means.  It  deserves  the  most  careful 
reading  and  even  pondering: 

1.  The  discovery  and  development  of  the  antiseptic 
method  which  has  made  possible  all  the  wonderful  results 
of  modern  surgery. 

2.  The  practical  development  of  modern  abdominal 
surgery,  including  operations  on  the  stomach,  intestines, 
appendix,  liver,  gall  stones,  pancreas,  spleen,  kidneys,  etc. 

3.  The  development  of  the  modern  surgery  of  the 
brain. 

4.  The  new  surgery  of  the  chest,  including  the  sur- 
gery of  the  heart,  lungs,  aorta,  esophagus,  etc. 

5.  The  almost  complete  preventing  of  lockjaw  after 
operations  and  even  after  accidents. 

6.  The  reduction  of  the  death  rate  after  compound 
fractures  from  two  out  of  three,  i.  e.,  sixty-six  in  a  hun- 
dred, to  less  than  one  in  a  hundred. 

7.  The  reduction  of  the  death  rate  of  ovariotomy 


272  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

from  two  out  of  three,  or  sixty-six  in  a  hundred,  to  two 
or  three  out  of  a  hundred. 

8.  The  reduction  of  the  death  rate  after  operations 
like  hernia,  amputation  of  the  breast  and  of  most  tumors 
so  that  it  is  now  almost  a  negligible  factor. 

9.  The  abolition  wherever  the  proper  measures  are 
taken,  in  this  country  and  the  canal  zone,  of  yellow  fever. 

10.  An  enormous  diminution  of  the  ravages  of  ma- 
laria, and,  in  some  places,  its  total  abolition. 

11.  The  reduction  of  the  death  rate  of  hydrophobia 
from  12  to  14  per  cent,  of  persons  bitten  to  0.77  per  cent. 

12.  The  development  of  a  method  of  direct  transfu- 
sion of  blood  which  has  already  saved  very  many  lives. 

13.  The  reduction  through  the  use  of  antitoxin  of 
the  death  rate  of  diphtheria  all  over  the  civilized  world. 
This  reduction  shows  a  change  from  a  mortality  of  79.9 
deaths  per  100,000  of  population  in  1894,  to  19  deaths 
per  100,000  in  1905. 

14.  The  reduction  of  the  mortality  of  epidemic  cere- 
bro-spinal  meningitis  from  75  or  even  cp-odd  per  cent, 
in  the  absence  of  serum  treatment,  to  20  per  cent,  and 
less  when  the  specific  serum  is  used. 

15.  The  cutting  down  of  the  death  rate  of  tubercu- 
losis by  from  30  to  50  per  cent.    This  is  due  not  to  treat- 
ment by  serum  or  vaccines,  but  to  methods  of  prevention 
based  on  the  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  tuberculosis. 

16.  In  the  British  army  and  navy  Malta  fever  has 
been  abolished.    In  1905,  before  the  successful  researches 
on  this  disease,  it  attacked  nearly  1,300  soldiers  and  sail- 
ors.    In  1907  the  army  had  only  eleven  cases;  in  1908, 
five  cases;  in  1909,  one  case. 

17.  The  almost  complete  abolition  of  childbed  fever, 
the  chief  former  peril  of  maternity.     Its  mortality  has 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE  273 

been  reduced  from  five  to  ten  up  even  to  fifty-seven  in 
every  hundred  mothers  to  one  in  1,250  mothers. 

1 8.  The  discovery  of  a  remedy  (Salvarsan),  which 
bids  fair  to  protect  innocent  wives  and  unborn  children, 
besides  many  others  in  the  community  at  large,  from  the 
horrible  curse  of  syphilis. 

19.  The  discovery  of  a  vaccine  against  typhoid  fever; 
which  in  the  recent  army  maneuvers  on  the  Mexican 
border  prevented  the  development  of  typhoid  among  the 
soldiers,  which  in  hospitals  has  greatly  reduced  its  inci- 
dence among  nurses,  and  which  is  now  coming  into 
general  use  in  all  places  where  infection  is  possible. 
The  improved  sanitation,  which  has  helped  to  reduce 
the  typhoid  death  rate  in  this  country,  is  itself  largely 
the  result  of  bacteriologic  experimentation. 

20.  Many  recent  activities  indicate  that  we  are  grad- 
ually nearing  the  discovery  of  the  cause,  and  then  we 
hope  of  the  cure,  of  several  of  the  dreadful  scourges  of 
humanity:  as  cancer,  infantile  paralysis,  pellagra;  and 
that  diseases  of  the  tropics,  such  as  sleeping  sickness,  etc., 
are  about  to  come  under  man's  control. 

21.  Finally,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  animals  them- 
selves have  been  enormously  benefited,  for  by  discover- 
ing the  causes,  and  in  many  cases  the  means  of  prevent- 
ing   tuberculosis,    rinderpest,    anthrax,    glanders,    hog 
cholera,  chicken  cholera,  lumpy  jaw,  distemper  and  other 
diseases  of  animals,  animal  suffering  has  been  greatly 
diminished. 

Any  one  who  can  study  this  list  of  discoveries  made 
through  experimentation  on  animals,  nearly  every  one 
of  which  would  have  been  impossible  by  any  other 
means,  and  is  capable  of  weighing  the  vast  good  to 


274  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

mankind  that  will  for  all  time  to  come  result  from 
these  advances  in  knowledge,  and  can  still  oppose  vivi- 
section, convicts  himself  of  incapacity  to  comprehend 
scientific  proof  or  of  culpable  indifference  to  the  wel- 
fare of  humanity.  He  must  be  treated  like  any  other 
enemy  of  society:  ignored  so  far  as  he  is  harmless, 
suppressed  when  he  becomes  dangerous.  When  his 
opposition  to  the  good  of  his  fellows  becomes  a  men- 
ace to  public  health  there  is  no  way  but  to  apply  force. 
The  right  of  the  community  to  protect  itself  is  supe- 
rior to  the  right  of  the  individual  to  refuse  or  neglect 
necessary  precautions  against  disease,  and  superior  to 
the  ethical  crotchets  of  a  small  minority. 


IV 

In  the  meantime,  though  we  are  making  steady 
progress  toward  the  prevention  of  disease,  we  must 
do  more  and  not  less  for  the  relief  of  the  sick.  No 
word  that  has  been  written  is  intended  to  discourage 
or  condemn  curative  measures,  only  to  direct  atten- 
tion to  the  more  important  as  well  as  more  neglected 
work  of  prevention.  We  may  well  be  proud  of  the 
work  of  our  boards  of  health.  Considering  their  limi- 
tations, by  insufficient  laws  and  inadequate  financial 
support,  and  often  lax  or  hostile  public  opinion,  they 
have  accomplished  marvels,  and  have  been  more  free 
from  "graft"  and  corruption  than  almost  any  other 
of  our  public  institutions.  We  should  strengthen  their 
hands  and  praise  their  efforts  much  more  freely.  They 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   DISEASE  275 

will  not  do  their  duty  any  less  faithfully  for  a  little 
generous  and  well-timed  applause. 

At  the  same  time  we  must  remember  that  a  hos- 
pital, an  asylum,  founded  and  supported  by  the  rich, 
is  not  a  thing  to  which  society  can  point  with  pride  as 
some  worthy  achievement;  it  is  rather  a  badge  of 
shame,  a  confession  of  failure.  Charity  is  not  a  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  poverty,  but  an  evasion;  not 
a  forsaking  of  social  sins,  but  an  attempt  to  compound 
for  them.  In  great,  rich  America  there  ought  to  be 
no  poverty,  no  charitable  institutions,  because  every 
one  ought  to  have  sufficient  for  his  needs.  Whatever 
provision  in  a  social  way  is  found  to  be  necessary  for 
the  treatment  of  disease  should  be  made  by  society  as 
a  whole — should  be  no  charity,  but  a  common  enter- 
prise for  mutual  good. 

Some  kind  of  insurance  of  wage  earners  against 
sickness,  however,  is  a  greatly  needed  step  forward, 
a  form  of  social  justice  that  cannot  long  be  denied,  es- 
pecially where  the  sickness  is  caused  by  occupation. 
Of  course,  what  the  worker  chiefly  wants  is  not  sick 
benefits,  but  health.  It  is  good  when  sick  to  know 
that  the  whole  family  are  not  to  suffer  from  hunger 
and  cold  because  the  breadwinner  is  disabled,  but  it  is 
still  better  when  the  breadwinner  is  able  to  work  and 
earn  steady  wages.  Nevertheless,  while  bending  all 
energies  to  the  prevention  of  disease,  society  should  not 
neglect  provision  for  those  who  meanwhile  become  its 
victims.  Society  cannot  escape  this  obligation,  because 
society  is  chiefly  blameworthy  for  the  continuance  of 
disease. 


276  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Insurance  against  accident  is  as  important  as  insur- 
ance against  disease.  The  business,  not  the  individ- 
ual, should  bear  this  burden,  which  will  be  passed  on 
to  society  in  price  of  product.  In  the  matter  of 
compensating  workmen  for  accidents  Wisconsin  is  a 
pioneer  State,  as  in  so  many  other  economic  and 
social  reforms.  A  compensation  act  has  been  in 
force  about  two  years,  and  up  to  January  i,  1914, 
there  had  been  6,894  claims  under  the  act  for  compen- 
sation. Of  these  all  but  156  were  settled  automati- 
cally; the  smaller  number  required  arbitration  by  the 
Industrial  Commission.  The  injured  workmen  were 
paid  $396,354.73,  which  went  to  the  injured  persons 
direct.  Hitherto,  the  courts  have  awarded  each  year 
about  $220,000  as  damages  for  injuries,  only  a  small 
part  of  which  ever  reached  the  workmen,  the  greater 
part  being  absorbed  in  the  expenses  of  litigation.  In- 
terests hitherto  conflicting  have  cooperated  in  promot- 
ing safety,  and  this  has  reduced  the  number  of  acci- 
dents greatly.  A  certain  percentage  of  accidents  is 
inevitable,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  percentage 
may  be  reduced,  by  proper  carefulness,  to  an  almost 
vanishing  point ;  and  that  whatever  remains  should  be 
treated  as  part  of  the  cost  of  production. 

The  United  States  Steel  Corporation  claims  to 
spend  every  year  $5,000,000  for  the  welfare  of  its  30,- 
ooo  workers,  of  which  $2,000,000  is  for  the  sick  and 
injured.  It  has  made  "safety  first"  the  motto  every- 
where, and  in  six  years  $2,500,000  has  been  spent  to 
prevent  accidents,  while  $750,000  is  now  devoted  each 
year  to  maintaining  and  improving  such  devices.  In 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   DISEASE  277 

addition  to  these  things,  an  old-age  pension  fund  of 
nearly  $12,000,000  has  been  established.  I  cannot 
vouch  for  the  correctness  of  these  figures,  but  the  mere 
fact  that  this  great  corporation  thinks  it  worth  while 
to  make  public  such  claims  shows  how  the  importance 
of  social  welfare  has  increased  within  a  decade.  At 
the  same  time,  it  must  be  recognized  that  there  is  a 
prejudice  among  workers  against  benefit  funds  of  a 
private  character.  It  is  freely  charged  and  widely  be- 
lieved that  certain  firms  and  corporations  which  have 
made  much  of  their  philanthropic  work  for  their  em- 
ployees so  administer  benefit  funds  (mostly  composed 
of  sums  withheld  from  wages)  as  to  swell  their  own 
profits  and  make  the  "benefits"  to  employees  illusory. 
Only  a  public  system,  administered  by  State  officials, 
can  ever  be  free  from  suspicion  of  some  ulterior  object. 
It  has  been  previously  pointed  out  that  social  better- 
ments, as  well  as  social  evils,  are  interlocked,  like  the 
directorates  of  some  of  our  great  financial  institutions. 
It  therefore  follows  that  betterment  in  one  direction 
almost  of  necessity  leads  to  other  betterments.  In 
Germany,  for  example,  the  State  provision  against 
sickness  has  greatly  stimulated  the  crusade  against  dis- 
ease, in  hope  of  reducing  sickness  to  the  minimum  and 
so  decreasing  the  burden  of  sick  benefits.  Sana- 
toriums  for  tuberculous  patients,  hospitals  for  the 
treatment  of  many  other  forms  of  disease,  convalescent 
homes,  and  like  public  and  private  institutions,  have 
sprung  up  in  large  numbers  all  over  Germany.  In- 
deed, it  is  agreed  among  those  who  have  studied  the 
operation  of  social  insurance  in  Germany  that  the 


278  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

chief  result  of  the  system,  at  any  rate  its  most  valuable 
result,  has  not  been  the  direct  monetary  benefits  to 
the  workers,  but  the  immense  educative  influence  it 
has  had.  Benefits,  or  any  other  form  of  financial  re- 
lief, can  only  minimize  and  palliate  industrial  evils; 
education  tends  to  remove  them.  The  worker  is  not 
slow  to  learn  that  better  than  insurance  is  to  need  no 
insurance;  to  have  possession  and  free  use  of  all  the 
powers  of  body  and  mind  is  much  more  to  his  interest 
than  any  sort  of  compensation  for  their  loss.  Given 
health,  employment,  and  fair  wages,  insurance  is  only 
an  anchor  to  windward  in  desperate  cases,  the  main 
value  of  which  is  to  give  a  sense  of  security  to  the 
workers  that  greatly  promotes  their  happiness  aud 
efficiency. 

The  experience  of  Germany  shows  another  thing: 
one  valuable  result  of  social  insurance  is  marked 
stimulus  to  the  progress  of  medicine  and  surgery.  The 
medical  profession  has  been  put  on  its  mettle  by  the 
increased  social  demand  for  the  best  treatment  and 
the  quickest  results,  and  in  consequence  there  have 
been  remarkable  discoveries.  Progress  in  surgery  has 
perhaps  been  most  remarkable,  at  least  it  is  most  spec- 
tacular. Photographs  lately  published  show  wonder- 
ful results  in  the  surgical  treatment  of  cases  of  indus- 
trial accidents.  One  series  shows  a  man  horribly  mu- 
tilated, having  lost  the  greater  part  of  both  arms  and 
both  legs;  a  trunk  and  four  stumps  was  what  the 
surgeons  had  to  work  upon.  Such  a  man  would,  only 
a  few  years  ago,  have  been  regarded  as  a  hopeless 
cripple,  condemned  for  the  rest  of  his  life  to  be  a 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   DISEASE  2/9 

burden  to  himself  and  his  family,  or  to  society.  The 
next  view  shows  the  man  fitted  with  artificial  arms 
and  legs,  and  finally  he  is  pictured  at  a  bench  in  a 
factory,  again  earning  his  living  like  any  other  work- 
man— no,  unlike  any  other,  but  still  earning  it.  There 
seems  no  limit  this  side  of  the  grave  to  what  modern 
science  and  ingenuity  can  accomplish,  and  through  the 
pulmotor  it  has  even  succeeded  in  restoring  the 
dead  to  life.  Many  of  the  things  that  are  now  every- 
day matters  would  have  been  hailed  as  undoubted 
miracles  in  any  past  age,  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
question  that  still  more  wonderful  things  will  be 
achieved  in  the  future. 

One  of  the  names  that  the  followers  of  Jesus  have 
delighted  to  give  him  is  the  Great  Physician.  The 
record  tells  us  that  he  went  about  the  towns  of  Galilee 
"proclaiming  the  Good  News  of  the  kingdom  and 
healing  all  manner  of  disease."  No  idea  of  the  Gospel 
can  leave  out  the  healing  of  the  sick  and  the  preven- 
tion of  disease  without  leaving  out  the  Christ  him- 
self. 


The  new  science  of  eugenics,  so  highly  lauded  and  so 
often  ridiculed,  is  intended  as  the  ultimate  solution  of 
the  problem  of  disease.  It  promises  at  least  to  dis- 
pose of  those  diseases  that  occur  by  transmission 
from  one  generation  to  another,  including  mere  ten- 
dency to  disease,  or  constitutional  weakness.  The 
State  will  ultimately  be  compelled,  in  self-defense,  to 


280  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

set  some  limits  to  the  marriage  of  the  unfit.  The  ad- 
vance in  medicine  and  surgery,  the  multiplication  of 
charities,  and  the  growth  of  philanthropic  sentiment 
are  now  preserving  thousands  of  lives  that  in  former 
times  were  extinguished  by  the  stern  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest.  We  are  thus  carefully  preserving 
the  mentally  and  physically  degenerate  folk  who  used 
to  perish  miserably,  and  they  are  propagating  their 
kind  faster  than  the  normal  population  increases.  The 
descendants  of  such  people  constitute  an  increasing 
reservoir  of  disease,  vice,  and  crime,  and  especially  of 
prostitution.  This  cannot  be  suffered  to  continue  un- 
checked without  danger,  nay,  certainty  of  general  race 
degeneration. 

Since  the  State  undertakes  now  to  regulate  mar- 
riage, and  issues  marriage  licenses,  it  has  already  as- 
sumed the  right  to  say  who  shall  and  who  shall  not 
be  united  in  lawful  wedlock.  It  is  but  a  step  further 
in  principle  for  the  State,  as  the  organ  of  society,  to 
require  a  physician's  certificate  of  sound  mental  and 
bodily  condition,  before  a  license  will  be  issued.  No 
man  or  woman  affected  by  a  contagious  or  transmissi- 
ble disease,  such  as  tuberculosis  or  syphilis,  is  fit  to 
marry;  and  to  ensure  its  own  protection  society  has 
right  as  well  as  power  to  say  that  the  unfit  shall  not 
marry.  It  is  right  in  principle  to  do  all  this,  but  at 
present  inexpedient,  as  the  example  of  Wisconsin  has 
shown.  That  State  took  the  lead  in  requiring  presen- 
tation of  a  medical  certificate  of  fitness  at  the  license 
bureau,  with  the  double  result  of  driving  thousands 
out  of  the  State  for  the  performance  of  the  marriage 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    DISEASE  28 1 

ceremony,  and  the  forming  of  many  illicit  unions  by 
those  too  poor  or  too  something  else  to  take  this 
trouble.  In  other  words,  the  law  is  evaded  or  defied, 
because  it  has  not  behind  it  a  sufficient  public  senti- 
ment. A  long  process  of  popular  education  will  be 
necessary  before  such  a  statute  will  be  effective. 

Nevertheless,  by  whatever  means  may  be  necessary, 
the  principle  must  be  applied.  It  may  be  necessary 
to  take  more  stringent  measures  to  prevent  illicit 
unions  of  the  unfit  who  are  debarred  from  legal  mar- 
riage, even  to  the  extent  of  compulsory  sterilization  of 
such  persons.  This  would  be  comparatively  easy  in 
the  case  of  such  as  are  gathered  in  institutions.  So- 
ciety cannot  long  evade  the  compulsion  of  facts,  and 
will  find  itself  constrained  to  put  an  effectual  end  to 
this  means  of  race  degeneration.  It  is  only  an  un- 
ethical squeamishness  that  prevents  us  from  looking 
the  problem  fairly  in  the  face,  discussing  it  thoroughly 
until  all  the  conditions  are  understood,  and  then 
adopting  with  intelligent  firmness  the  one  sovereign 
remedy. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  PROBLEM   OF  POVERTY 

IN  our  survey  of  social  ills  we  have  found  poverty 
at  the  bottom  of  all,  as  sole  cause,  chief  cause,  or  ag- 
gravating cause.  For  several  years  past  we  have  had 
to  face  this  social  condition :  the  greatest  crops  in  the 
history  of  our  nation  gathered  in  (valued  in  1913  at 
$10,000,000,000  in  round  numbers),  abundance  of 
food  for  our  own  people  and  a  large  surplus  for  other 
countries  less  fortunate,  and  the  highest  prices  for 
food  that  our  people  have  ever  paid.  Something 
wrong?  Who  can  doubt  it?  What  is  wrong?  Who 
can  doubt  that! 

"The  rich  man  must  work  to  get  an  appetite  for  his 
dinner;  the  poor  man  must  work  to  get  a  dinner  for 
his  appetite."  The  old  jest  is  true,  though  it  is  no 
jesting  matter.  But  there  is  this  further  important 
difference:  When  both  have  done  their  work,  the 
rich  man  has  too  much  dinner  and  the  poor  man  not 
enough.  At  one  end  of  the  social  scale  men  are  dying 
of  starvation,  at  the  other  end  of  surfeit.  God  said  to 
Adam:  "By  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat 
bread,"  but  Mammon  says  to  his  subjects:  "By  the 
sweat  of  another's  face  shalt  thou  eat  pie."  Dives 
still  fares  sumptuously  every  day,  while  Lazarus  sits  at 
his  pate  and  numbly  asks  to  be  fed  with  the  crumbs 

282 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          283 

that  fall  from  his  table.  The  thing  that  is  wrong  is 
that  the  product  of  the  earth  is  so  unequally  divided 
— that  the  many  live  in  misery  and  the  few  in  luxury. 
Even  before  we  begin  to  search  for  cause  and  cure, 
the  very  existence  of  the  fact  outrages  our  sense  of 
justice,  rouses  to  protest  all  the  finer  instincts  of  our 
humanity. 

It  is  well  to  face  at  the  outset  the  staggering  pro- 
portions of  our  problem.  Mr.  Robert  Hunter,  one 
of  the  highest  authorities  on  the  subject,  declares  that 
not  fewer  than  10,000,000  persons  in  the  United 
States  live  in  poverty — that  is  to  say,  in  actual  desti- 
tution and  suffering.  The  number  of  persons  in  acute 
distress  is  variable,  from  not  less  than  14  per  cent  in 
prosperous  times  to  20  per  cent,  in  bad  times.  There 
is  another  great  element  of  our  population  that  con- 
tinually lives  in  a  condition  that  may  also  be  described 
as  poverty,  inasmuch  as  they  never  have  quite  enough 
for  their  wants.  It  is  not  merely  that  their  desires 
are  unsatisfied — when  it  comes  to  that  none  of  us  have 
all  that  we  desire — but  they  lack  food,  shelter,  and 
clothing  sufficient  to  keep  them  in  good  health  and 
economic  efficiency.  Three-fourths  of  our  male  wage- 
earners  receive  less  than  $750  a  year,  the  lowest  sum 
on  which  a  normal  family  can  live  a  normal  life.  Half 
of  the  women  wage-earners,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
fail  to  receive  a  living  wage. 

I 

Poverty  is  as  unnecessary  as  disease,  is  as  curable 
as  disease,  and  for  the  same  reason :  we  now  know  the 


284  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

cause  and  hence  we  know  just  where  to  apply  the 
cure.  And,  as  with  disease,  the  only  cure  is  preven- 
tion. 

The  cause  of  poverty  may  be  stated  in  a  single  word, 
EXPLOITATION.  Exploitation  is  the  power  of  man  to 
use  his  fellow  man  for  his  own  profit.  It  runs  the 
whole  gamut  from  chattel  slavery  through  serfdom  to 
wage  slavery.  Exploitation  enables  a  man  to  enjoy 
what  he  has  not  earned,  by  robbing  his  brother  of  what 
the  latter  has  earned.  This  produces  the  wealth  of  the 
few  and  the  poverty  of  the  many.  There  may  be  con- 
tributing causes,  but  this  is  fundamental  and  chief. 

But  how  did  exploitation  come  to  be  ?  It  developed 
gradually  out  of  a  simpler  and  juster  system.  In  a 
primitive  state  of  society,  where  all  are  trying  to  get 
a  living  and  succeeding  indifferently,  let  us  imagine 
two  men,  A  and  B.  A  has  a  weaker  body  or  is  less 
inclined  to  physical  exertion,  but  is  intelligent,  while 
B  has  strong  muscles  and  not  much  else.  A  proposes 
that  they  join  forces,  A  contributing  his  wit  and  skill 
and  B  doing  most  of  the  work.  The  result  is  that  the 
two,  working  thus,  produce  considerably  more  than 
they  had  both  produced  working  separately.  It  is  a 
good  arrangement  for  both,  so  good  that  C  and 
D  ask  or  are  asked  after  a  time  to  join.  The  scheme 
works  perfectly,  so  long  as  each  man  plays  fair  and 
the  product  is  equally  shared ;  and  all  are  equally  satis- 
fied. In  some  such  way  originated  the  prehistoric 
communistic  groups. 

But  after  a  time  A  sets  that  bright  mind  of  his  at 
work  on  the  problem  how  to  get  more  than  an  equal 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          285 

share.  First  he  devises  a  way  by  which  land,  instead 
of  being  held  in  common,  is  allotted  in  parcels  to  each 
one  of  the  tribe  or  group,  and  in  process  of  time  the 
principle  of  private  ownership  of  land  is  established. 
Then  he  engages  E,  F,  and  G  to  work  for  him,  and  by 
way  of  inducement  offers  them  a  fixed  amount  of 
product,  instead  of  an  equal  share  of  product.  They 
accept,  and,  after  paying  them,  he  has  a  surplus  which 
he  exchanges  for  other  commodities  and  rapidly  in- 
creases in  wealth.  Later  he  hires  H,  I,  and  J,  who 
have  in  some  way  lost  possession  of  land,  at  a  lower 
wage;  and,  if  they  are  dissatisfied,  lets  them  go  and 
hires  others  for  still  less,  until  finally  the  share  of  the 
workers  in  the  product,  instead  of  being  equal,  is  only 
enough  to  give  them  a  bare  subsistence.  This  is  the 
capitalistic  system,  exploitation,  profit. 

But,  as  time  passes  on,  E,  F,  G  and  the  rest  of 
their  alphabetical  brothers  become  more  intelligent; 
they  at  length  comprehend  the  situation;  and  one  fine 
day  they  announce  to  capitalist  A :  "We  are  going  to 
end  this  way  of  doing  business.  You  have  used  your 
superior  intelligence  to  defraud  us  of  the  larger  part 
of  our  product.  We  are  tired  of  working  to  make 
you  wealthy.  We  propose  to  use  the  accumulated  tools 
and  experience  of  the  race  in  production,  but  to  re- 
turn to  the  original  method  of  sharing  alike  in  the 
product.  If  you  wish  to  work  and  share  with  us, 
very  well,  but  if  not,  go  your  ways."  That  is  social 
reform  in  a  nutshell.  The  coming  revolution  is  to  be, 
as  Hyndman  well  puts  it,  "a  complete  economic  and 
ethical  and  social  transformation,  from  competition  to 


286  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

cooperation,  from  domination  to  equality,  from  slavery 
to  freedom."  Socializing  industry  means  that  every 
man  will  be  guaranteed  the  product  of  his  own  labor. 
Nobody  can  object  to  this,  save  one  who  is  bent  on 
seizing  the  product  of  another's  labor.  But  few 
among  us  can  see  these  things  as  they  are,  for  the 
wealthy  class  look  at  everything  through  colored  spec- 
tacles whose  name  is  Greed,  while  over  the  eyes  of  the 
working  class  is  a  bandage  whose  name  is  Ignorance. 

Exploitation  became  successful  first  of  all  because 
a  portion  of  society  was  able  to  appropriate  to  itself 
the  land  that  was  the  heritage  of  all.  Life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  are  inalienable  human  rights. 
Every  American  is  taught  that  and  most  Ameri- 
cans profess  to  believe  it.  Every  human  being  has 
the  same  right  to  live  as  every  other,  no  more,  no  less. 
That  necessarily  includes  the  principle  that  every  man 
has  the  same  right  as  every  other  to  gain  the  means 
of  living,  and  that  again  implies  equal  access  to  the 
earth  from  which  alone  a  living  can  be  secured.  Land, 
like  air,  water,  and  light,  is  nature's  gift  to  the  race; 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  is  emphatic  on  that  point.  It  be- 
longs to  everybody  and  can  be  the  exclusive  possession 
of  nobody.  Custom  or  statute  can  give  to  individuals 
a  legal  title  to  exclusive  ownership  of  land,  but  nothing 
can  give  an  ethical  title.  Ethically,  the  ownership  of 
land  is  robbery  of  the  many  by  the  few,  and  because  of 
that  robbery  we  have  a  civilization  spoiled  by  wealth 
at  the  top  and  by  poverty  at  the  bottom. 

Those  who  have  seized  upon  the  common  heritage 
of  all  men  and  now  claim  exclusive  ownership  of  it 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          287 

are  simply  robbers  of  their  fellows.  This  use  of  the 
word  "robbers"  and  "robbery"  is  intended  as  the  true 
description  of  the  ethical  character  of  the  transaction, 
not  its  legal  or  recognized  character.  This  particular 
form  of  robbery  has  been  legalized  in  many  nations 
for  centuries,  and  has  therefore  become  socially  re- 
spectable, without,  however,  changing  the  essential 
character  of  the  action.  Slavery  once  had  behind  it 
centuries  of  legal  authority  and  social  approval,  but 
nothing  could  give  an  ethical  character  to  the  hold- 
ing in  bondage  of  one  man  by  another.  But  this  legal- 
izing and  social  sanction  does  greatly  affect  the  ques- 
tion of  personal  guilt.  The  extreme  abolitionists  of 
the  last  century  were  wrong  in  declaring  that  every 
slaveholder  was  guilty  of  the  unpardonable  sin,  and 
the  social  reformer  of  to-day  would  be  equally  wrong 
in  declaring  every  landowner  to  be  a  thief.  The  work- 
ing man  who  has  invested  his  painfully  saved  dollars 
in  a  bit  of  land  that  he  may  build  a  house  wherein  he 
and  his  may  have  a  home  of  their  own  is  a  very  dif- 
ferent person  from  a  burglar  or  a  footpad.  It  is  the 
system  that  is  wrong,  not  the  individual. 

We  can  understand  now  what  has  caused  the  sudden 
prominence  in  the  United  States  of  social  and  eco- 
nomic problems,  so  that  the  man  in  the  street  is  talk- 
ing about  subjects  that  two  decades  ago  were  dis- 
cussed only  by  a  few  experts.  The  safety-valve  has 
been  tied  down  and  the  steam-pressure  has  risen  dan- 
gerously near  the  bursting  point.  There  is  no  outlet 
to-day  for  surplus  laborers  to  flow  toward  unoccu- 
pied land.  The  old  song  is  no  longer  true,  Uncle  Sam 


288  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

is  not  rich  enough  to  give  us  all  a  farm.  Little  land 
that  can  be  profitably  worked — practically  none — is 
available  for  settlers.  Not  even  cheap  land  is  any 
longer  to  be  bought,  save  that  which  is  arid  or  ex- 
hausted or  far  from  any  possible  market.  The  peo- 
ple's land  has  all  been  stolen.  A  favorite  exhortation 
of  some  to  the  workless  laborer  of  the  East  has  been, 
Go  West  and  take  up  a  farm.  It  would  be  as  sensible 
to  exhort  a  Western  laborer  who  is  out  of  work  to 
go  East  and  take  up  a  factory.  The  one  is  as  feasible 
as  the  other,  for  in  these  days  either  demands  capital 
— the  one  thing  that  the  workless  man  has  not  and 
cannot  get. 

It  is  quite  true,  as  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  has 
pointed  out,  that  less  than  half  the  arable  land  is 
actually  tilled — or  approximately  400,000,000  out  of 
935,000,000  acres.  But  this  vast  area  is  kept  from 
cultivation  by  private  ownership,  and  is  held  in  this 
unproductive  state  until  the  time  comes  when  it  will 
be  profitable  to  cultivate  it. 

Beginning  with  and  resting  upon  this  misappropria- 
tion of  land,  a  great  system  of  exploitation  has  been 
built  up.  Those  who  found  themselves  without  land 
were  compelled  to  labor  for  those  who  did  possess  it; 
and  thus  a  class  of  hired  laborers  came  into  existence. 
The  land  was  not  sufficient  to  furnish  all  of  them 
employment  as  their  numbers  grew,  and  some  became 
domestic  servants.  As  commerce  and  handicrafts  in- 
creased, larger  numbers  were  demanded  as  helpers  in 
these  new  activities.  When  the  new  era  of  machinery 
and  the  factory  began,  there  was  a  tremendous  in- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          289 

crease  of  those  who  worked  for  a  wage.  Now  society 
is  divided  into  two  great  classes,  the  employers  of 
labor  and  those  who  are  employed.  The  growth  of 
the  system,  once  started,  was  almost  automatic,  cer- 
tainly normal.  We  can  trace  each  stage  of  its  prog- 
ress clearly. 

And  throughout  the  system  the  one  feature  runs 
and  constitutes  its  characteristic:  exploitation,  the 
gaining  of  profit.  Men  no  longer  have  equal  right 
to  live.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent,  at  the  present 
rate  of  advance,  a  few  hundred  men,  or  even  a  single 
man,  from  ultimately  owning  the  entire  resources  of 
America,  while  the  rest  of  the  90,000,000 — or  the 
200,000,000,  as  they  probably  would  be  by  that  time 
— would  lie  completely  at  their  mercy,  dependent  upon 
them  for  their  very  life.  That  is  to  say,  there  is  noth- 
ing in  our  present  laws  or  economic  system  to  prevent 
the  reduction  of  our  social  system  to  this  ultimate  ab- 
surdity; but  long  before  such  result  could  be  reached 
revolution  would  put  summary  stop  to  the  process. 
Yet  to  any  sober  thinker  the  present  social  order  is 
precisely  as  indefensible  on  any  principles  of  justice  as 
one-man  ownership  would  be. 

Business  professes  above  all  things  to  be  practical; 
its  boast  is  that  it  takes  things  as  it  finds  them.  But 
this,  which  it  regards  as  justification  for  all  things,  is 
its  sentence  of  condemnation.  It  is  man's  task  not  to 
take  the  world  as  he  finds  it,  in  the  sense  of  being 
complacently  satisfied  with  whatever  is,  but  to  make 
the  world  that  he  finds  a  better  world  to  live  and  work 
in.  But  modern  business  has  contented  itself  with 


29O  THE   GOSPEL    OF   JESUS 

devising  machinery  to  make  profits  to  pile  up  capital 
to  make  more  profits  to  pile  up  more  capital — and  so 
on  ad  infi-nitum.  This  is  not  progress;  it  is  swinging 
around  a  circle  and  getting  nowhere.  Modern  indus- 
trialism has  as  its  noble  end  the  employment  of  the 
smallest  possible  number  of  workers,  at  the  least  pos- 
sible wage,  for  the  longest  possible  work  day,  at  the 
hardest  possible  toil,  to  make  the  largest  possible  profit.1 
Hence  profit  always  and  of  necessity  involves  getting 
more  than  one  gives.  It  is  appropriating  labor  power 
or  its  product  without  giving  an  equivalent.  When 
the  highwayman  does  this  with  violence  we  call  it 
robbery;  when  the  confidence  man  does  it  by  a  trick 
we  call  it  swindling;  when  the  manufacturer  or  mer- 
chant does  it  we  call  it  business.  All  three  take  ad- 
vantage of  human  weakness,  ignorance,  or  necessity. 
The  ethical  quality  of  highway  robbery,  selling  "gold" 
bricks,  and  business  is  precisely  the  same.  Our  social 
ethics  make  a  distinction,  but  there  is  no  difference. 

Yes,  there  is  one  important  practical  difference: 
profit  is  an  eminently  respectable  form  of  theft.  It 
supports  thousands  of  pious  people;  it  maintains 
churches  and  foreign  missions;  it  endows  schools;  it 
makes  possible  (and  necessary)  all  our  hospitals  and 
asylums  and  sanatoriums.  But  it  remains  theft,  for  it 
is  the  taking  of  product  from  those  who  have  pro- 
duced it  and  giving  it  to  others  who  have  produced 
nothing.  This  is  done  under  process  of  law  and  in  the 
most  seemly  ways,  but  it  violates  the  law  "Thou  shalt 
not  steal."  It  is  the  guilt  of  society,  not  of  the  indi- 

1  Henderson,  "Pay-Day,"  p.  49. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    POVERTY  29! 

vidual,  and  when  society  becomes  awake  to  the  essen- 
tially unethical  nature  of  business  it  will  be  not  far 
from  the  kingdom  of  God. 

I  once  thought  and  said — may  God  forgive! — that 
it  was  the  duty  of  some  men  to  get  rich  and  use  their 
wealth  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  Many  still  hold  that 
view,  little  understanding  what  "getting  rich"  means 
and  how  impossible  it  is  that  the  kingdom  which  is 
righteousness,  joy,  and  peace  can  be  forwarded  by 
the  unrighteous  Mammon.  "Business  enterprise"  is 
the  euphonious  name  of  all  manner  of  rottenness  and 
wickedness,  and  "business  success"  involves  violation 
of  every  law,  human  or  divine,  that  stands  in  the  way, 
by  men  of  steel-wire  nerves  and  asbestos  morals.  Said 
Charles  S.  Mellen  in  his  testimony  before  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission,  May  14,  1914:  "All  I 
was  after  was  results  for  the  New  Haven  road,  and  I 
would  have  done  business  with  the  devil  himself  had 
it  been  necessary."  The  only  exceptional  thing  about 
this  declaration  is  its  cynical  frankness.  Getting  rich 
is  possible  only  by  robbery  of  one's  brother,  spoliation 
of  the  helpless,  exploitation  of  the  weak.  One  under- 
stands sometimes  too  late  that  the  money  one  makes  is 
the  price  of  innocent  blood,  and  knows  something  of 
the  horror  of  Judas  as  he  contemplates  his  gains.  Not 
many  of  the  capitalistic  class,  however,  have  come  as 
yet  to  join  the  late  Joseph  Fels,  who  said,  "I  purpose 
to  use  my  fortune  in  overthrowing  the  damnable  sys- 
tem which  enables  me  to  acquire  it."  In  the  day  of 
Jehovah's  faithfulness  the  prophet  tells  us  that  "Holi- 
ness to  Jehovah"  was  to  be  engraved  on  the  bells  of 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

the  horses,  and  every  household  pot  should  be  as  holy 
as  those  in  the  Temple.  In  our  day  "Exploitation  of 
the  weak"  may  be  read  by  the  discerning  eye  on  every 
product  of  man;  all  things  are  involved  in  a  common 
degradation.  It  is  woven  into  every  yard  of  cloth,  it 
is  watermarked  on  every  sheet  of  paper,  it  is  chiseled 
on  the  portal  of  every  building,  it  is  cast  into  every 
tool,  it  is  the  tag-mark  of  every  piece  of  merchandise. 

What  does  our  favorite  American  word  "succeed" 
mean,  conjugated  in  all  its  moods  and  tenses?  Clever 
exploitation,  nothing  more.  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller, 
in  one  of  his  autobiographic  contributions,  said  that 
the  foundation  of  his  fortune  was  the  saving  of  $50 
and  loaning  it  to  a  farmer  at  interest.  He  thus  made 
the  great  discovery,  as  he  put  it,  that  "he  could  make 
his  money  work  for  him."  What  he  really  discovered 
was,  of  course,  that  he  could  make  the  farmer  work 
for  him — money  never  works — and  he  was  quite  cor- 
rect in  saying  that  is  the  origin  of  his  fortune.  He 
has  been  making  men  work  for  him  ever  since.  That 
is  the  story  of  all  fortunes,  large  or  small.  Anybody 
who  possesses  a  dollar  or  a  dollar's  worth  beyond  the 
product  of  his  own  labor  has  acquired  the  product  of 
some  other  man's  labor. 

Karl  Marx  defined  wealth  as  the  accumulation  of 
commodities.  It  was  that  in  primitive  times,  perhaps 
it  still  should  be  that,  but  it  is  that  no  longer.  Most 
of  what  is  now  called  "wealth"  is  not  wealth  at  all. 
Real  wealth  is  something  that  has  been  dug  out  of 
the  earth  anu  shaped  by  human  labor  into  something 
useful.  Real  wealth  may  be  touched  and  weighed  and 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY         293 

measured.  A  few  millions  only  of  the  vast  fortune 
credited  to  Mr.  Rockefeller  are  visible  to  the  eye,  but 
the  great  bulk  of  his  "wealth"  does  not  consist  in  so 
many  barrels  of  oil,  so  many  tons  of  copper  and  coal, 
so  many  buildings  and  acres,  but  in  his  ability  to  pro- 
duce through  the  labor  of  others  indefinite  quantities 
of  oil  and  copper  in  years  to  come.  In  other  words, 
the  larger  part  of  his  wealth  does  not  really  exist:  it 
is  merely  a  mortgage  on  the  future,  command  of  the 
services  of  other  men,  power  to  assess  a  tax  on  wealth 
yet  to  be  produced.  This  "wealth"  consists  of  pieces 
of  paper,  called  "stocks,"  on  which  dividends  are  to 
be  paid  out  of  future  earnings;  and  other  pieces  of 
paper,  called  "bonds,"  on  which  interest  must  be  paid 
out  of  the  products  of  industry. 

The  "wealth"  of  this  great  captain  of  industry 
turns  out,  therefore,  on  analysis,  to  consist  mainly  of 
two  elements :  first,  the  power  he  has  under  the  law  to 
diminish  the  real  wealth  of  the  coming  generation; 
second,  ability  to  control  the  labor  of  other  men 
through  his  ownership  of  the  means  of  production.  It 
is  inevitable  that  there  should  be  serious  inquiry  into 
the  ethical  foundations  of  such  privilege.  What  right 
can  any  man  plead  to  the  possession  of  such  power? 
Men  talk  of  the  "sacredness  of  property."  But  in 
what  sense  is  there  sacredness  in  the  right  to  tax  the 
industry  of  the  future?  In  the  various  enterprises 
that  this  single  man  controls  there  are  employed  a 
great  host  of  men,  whose  life  and  happiness  and  that 
of  their  families  are  dependent  on  him.  He  wields 
a  power  greater  than  that  which  we  usually  describe 


294  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

as  "despotic"  and  less  subject  to  checks,  over  a  num- 
ber of  men,  women,  and  children  larger  than  the  popu- 
lation of  entire  States.  And  the  question  now  before 
the  house  is,  whether  such  power  shall  be  permitted  to 
continue — whether  it  is  founded  on  any  equitable 
principle  in  the  first  place,  and  whether  it  is  a  safe 
power  in  a  democracy.  Or,  to  go  even  closer  to  the 
root  of  things,  whether  a  democracy  is  possible  where 
such  economic  despotism  exists. 

If  any  human  right  deserves  to  be  called  "inalien- 
able" it  is  the  right  to  work,  for  the  right  to  work  is 
synonymous  with  the  right  to  live.  But  under  capi- 
talism work  is  not  a  right  but  a  favor,  to  be  granted 
or  withheld  at  the  will  of  an  employer,  who  will  give 
work  only  to  so  many  and  under  such  conditions  as 
will  promise  him  profit.  It  is  no  exaggeration,  there- 
fore, but  precise  statement  of  fact,  to  say  that  under 
our  present  industrial  system  all  outside  of  the  capi- 
talist class  are  living  on  sufferance.  If  they  were  de- 
nied opportunity  of  work,  any  of  them  could  continue 
to  live  only  until  they  had  consumed  their  present  small 
possessions.  This  is  complete  perversion  of  the  so- 
cial function  of  wealth  or  property.  The  true  func- 
tion of  property  is  to  support  life;  it  is  a  reserve  of 
society,  like  a  sum  in  the  savings  bank,  to  be  drawn 
on  at  need  or  to  establish  a  new  enterprise.  The  capi- 
talistic system  has  turned  property  into  the  deadliest 
foe  of  life.  Every  consideration  of  safety,  of  com- 
fort, of  improvement  in  the  arts  of  living,  is  sacrificed 
to  the  great  god  Profit. 

Every  invention  that  could  increase  or  cheapen  pro- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY         295 

duction  has  been  eagerly  seized  by  capitalists,  pro- 
vided only  profit  could  be  foreseen;  if  it  were  more 
profitable  to  suppress  an  invention  than  to  use  it,  that 
has  been  done;  but  inventions  and  improvements  de- 
signed merely  to  make  life  safer  and  labor  easier  have 
been  introduced  only  by  the  strong  arm  of  law,  and 
after  a  hard  struggle.  Why  not?  Great  is  Profit  of 
the  capitalists.  Fifty  years  ago  John  Stuart  Mill 
wrote :  "It  is  questionable  if  all  the  mechanical  inven- 
tions yet  made  have  lightened  the  day's  toil  of  any 
human  being."  It  is  even  more  doubtful  to-day  than 
when  these  words  were  written.  As  a  result  of  this 
system  capitalized  wealth  has  been  increasing  in  geo- 
metric ratios.  The  accumulations  of  each  generation 
are  laid  by  capitalism  as  an  additional  burden  on  the 
productive  energies  of  the  generation  to  come.  The 
system  must  break  down  of  its  own  weight;  the  time 
will  come,  if  it  has  not  come  already,  when  men  can 
no  longer  pay  this  tax  and  live. 

"Capital,"  says  Professor  Small,  "is  as  different 
from  capitalism  as  water  from  drowning."  1  Society 
needs  capital;  the  capitalist  lags  superfluous  on  the 
stage.  A  few  rich  individuals  and  groups  now  con- 
trol the  land,  mines,  timber,  water-power  and  other 
natural  resources  of  the  country,  and  are  in  a  fair 
way  to  own  the  arable  soil  also;  and  have  added  to 
these  the  factories,  machinery,  and  other  means  of 
production.  All  the  sources  of  wealth  are  either  in 
their  possession,  or  rapidly  tending  thither.  Great 
wealth  grows  like  the  small  boy's  snow  ball,  only  it 
1  "Between  Two  Eras,"  p.  329. 


296  THE  GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

needs  nobody  to  turn  it  over.  The  chief  evils  of  so- 
ciety grow  out  of  this  condition  of  things,  and  the 
others  are  greatly  aggravated  by  it.  The  remedy  is 
as  simple  as  the  condition:  take  ownership  of  natural 
resources  and  tools  of  production  from  the  few  and 
give  these  things  to  the  many,  the  workers  whose  labor 
alone  now  makes  them  or  can  ever  make  them  produc- 
tive. Until  every  man  has  the  right  to  work,  oppor- 
tunity to  convert  his  labor  power  into  means  of  living, 
and  to  enjoy  what  he  produces,  there  will  be  poverty, 
there  will  be  disease,  there  will  be  vice,  there  will  be 
crime  in  ever-increasing  mass. 

The  great  fortunes  have  been  justified  by  econo- 
mists and  moralists  on  the  ground  that  exceptional  in- 
dustrial and  financial  genius  deserves  an  exceptional 
reward;  and  society  can  well  afford  to  pay  such  re- 
ward, because  possibility  of  capturing  so  great  a  prize 
is  continual  stimulus  to  ability.  But  some  facts  are 
hard  to  reconcile  with  this  attempted  defense.  The 
late  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  was  entitled,  we  are  assured, 
to  his  hundred  millions  (more  or  less)  because  he  was 
the  one  great  financial  genius  of  his  generation.  But 
one  day  Mr.  Morgan  dies — and  nothing  happens.  If 
his  eulogists  were  correct  the  loss  of  the  one  great 
financial  genius  of  the  age  ought  to  produce  something 
like  a  cataclysm  in  High  Finance,  but,  as  matter  of 
fact,  the  death  of  one  of  his  thousand-dollar-a-year 
clerks  would  have  made  quite  as  much  trouble.  In- 
deed, it  might  have  been  harder  to  find  another  good 
clerk  than  to  find  a  successor  to  Mr.  Morgan.  The 
necessity  of  the  Morgans  to  society  has  been  much  ex- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   POVERTY 

aggerated — the  black- whiskered  pirate  of  that  name 
two  centuries  ago  was  as  much  needed  as  the  great 
financier. 

Indeed,  the  banker  and  the  pirate  have  much  more 
in  common  than  a  name.  Men  of  Wall  Street  are 
often  spoken  of  by  those  who  should  have  more  sense 
as  if  they  had  done  great  things  in  building  up  our 
railways  and  developing  our  great  industries.  The 
fact  is  just  the  contrary.  The  Morgans  never  produce 
a  dollar's  equivalent  of  wealth  in  all  their  baleful  his- 
tory. All  the  railways,  all  the  great  industries,  have 
been  developed  by  the  capital,  the  sacrifices,  and  the 
labors  of  others.  The  Morgans  do  nothing  but  manip- 
ulate pieces  of  paper,  and  gather  into  their  coffers  the 
wealth  that  others  have  produced.  When  enterprises 
have  been  advanced  by  others  to  a  point  where  they 
see  an  opportunity,  they  step  in  and  by  "reorganiza- 
tions" and  "consolidations,"  involving  much  "water- 
ing" of  stocks  and  "cutting  of  melons,"  they  get  to 
themselves  great  wealth — and  incidentally  they  often 
ruin  the  property.  This  is  piracy  made  respectable, 
but  piracy  still. 

II 

Exploitation  is  the  guilt,  not  of  individuals,  but  of 
an  industrial  system  which  operates  automatically, 
without  reference  to  the  will  or  character  of  indi- 
viduals. The  income  of  one  of  our  great  industrial 
nobles  is  said  this  year  to  be  $70,000,000.  He  may  go 
to  Europe  for  a  year — it  would  be  the  least  harmful 


298  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

thing  he  could  do,  possibly — he  may  even  die,  but  next 
year  his  income,  or  that  of  his  estate,  will  be  $80,000,- 
ooo.  A  great  fortune  can  no  longer  be  dissipated  by 
spendthrift  heirs — if  it  could,  some  of  the  Vanderbilts 
and  Goulds  would  now  be  looking  for  jobs — they  can 
only  spend  the  income,  and  that  with  difficulty.  "From 
shirtsleeves  to  shirtsleeves"  no  longer  describes  a  so- 
cial fact.  And  what  is  the  source  of  this  vast  income  ? 
Nothing  that  this  great  noble  does;  he  has  ceased  to 
work;  "his  money  works  for  him" — that  is,  compels 
other  men  to  work  for  him.  This  income  of  his  is 
interest,  dividends,  profit,  paid  out  of  the  annual  prod- 
uct of  labor.  Every  wage-earner  is  taxed  that  this 
income  may  be  paid.  It  must  be  paid,  first  of  all,  like 
all  other  income;  and  the  laborer  will  be  paid  out  of 
what  may  be  left.  There  are  about  35,000,000  pro- 
ductive workers  in  the  United  States,  and  each  of 
them  paid  this  man  last  year  two  dollars  out  of  his 
hard  earnings.  For  what? 

The  greater  the  amount  of  capital,  real  or  fictitious 
(and  the  larger  part  is  fictitious),  that  such  men  as 
this  have  "invested"  in  various  enterprises,  the  more 
workers  must  pay  them  out  of  their  product,  and  the 
smaller  will  be  the  amount  left  for  those  whose  labor 
produces  all  the  wealth  of  the  nation.  Will  anybody 
look  at  these  facts  soberly  and  say  that  this  is  a  ra- 
tional system,  defensible  by  any  person  possessed  of 
sound  reason  ?  Will  anybody  look  at  them  in  the  light 
of  ethics  and  say  that  this  system  is  not  inherently 
wicked,  that  it  is  not  a  plain  breach  of  the  command- 
ment, "Thou  shalt  not  steal"  ? 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          2Q9 

It  is  true  that  there  was  exploitation  before  the  in- 
dustrial revolution.  None  of  our  social  ills  are  new; 
most  of  them  are  of  hoary  antiquity;  but  steam  and 
machinery  have  caused  them  to  grow  like  Alice  in 
Wonderland  after  she  tasted  the  mushroom.  In  a  few 
decades  moderate  evils  have  become  colossal.  All  so- 
cial organization  is  reversal  of  the  law  of  nature.  In 
nature  there  is  fierce  struggle  for  existence  in  which 
the  fittest  survive;  social  organization  is  limiting  the 
power  of  the  strong  and  clever  to  exploit  the  weak. 
Civilization  is  enforcement  of  artificial  equality  in 
place  of  natural  inequality.  Our  present  industrial 
system  is  barbarism,  pure  and  simple,  not  civilization, 
because  it  permits  rule  of  the  strong  and  compels 
slavery  of  the  weak.  Progress  requires  a  more  com- 
plete socialization  of  industrial  forces,  and  is  possible 
on  no  other  terms. 

Capitalism  aims  only  at  making  the  largest  possible 
margin  of  profit,  even  if  thereby  it  makes  the  smallest 
possible  margin  of  life.  The  humane  and  Christian 
character  of  some  capitalists  may  do  something  to 
ameliorate  the  system,  but  can  do  little  or  nothing  to 
modify  its  essential  inhumanity.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  often  exhibition  by  the  working  class  of 
solidarity  and  spirit  of  sacrifice  for  the  common  good, 
that  even  the  Christian  Church,  with  all  its  preaching 
of  brotherhood  and  inculcation  of  sacrifice,  cannot 
parallel.  For  too  often  the  preaching  of  the  Church 
is  "just  preaching."  In  church  men  profess  the  creed 
of  brotherhood;  they  repeat  together  the  command- 
ment of  Jesus  to  love  one  another.  They  go  next  day 


3OO  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

to  business,  and  in  every  word  and  act  profess  the 
creed  of  hatred :  the  strong  trample  the  weaker  under 
foot,  the  shrewd  strips  the  less  shrewd  of  his  last  dol- 
lar. And  the  worst  of  it  is  that  men  do  not  see  this 
hypocrisy;  they  are  quite  unconscious  of  this  intel- 
lectual contradiction  and  moral  suicide ;  they  talk  with 
straight  face  of  "carrying  their  Christianity  into  busi- 
ness" ! 

As  we  have  seen,  individual  ownership  of  the  soil  is 
one  great  pillar  of  exploitation,  while  ownership  of 
tools  is  the  other.  Man  is  the  only  animal  who  can 
use  tools,  and  the  progress  of  civilization  may  be  ac- 
curately traced  by  the  invention  of  new  and  more  ef- 
ficient tools.  So  long  as  these  were  simple  and  inex- 
pensive no  harm  was  done  by  permitting  private  own- 
ership of  them.  But  in  these  latter  days  the  simple 
tool  has  been  replaced  in  industry  by  the  complex  and 
expensive  machine.  A  generation  ago  even,  a  few 
days  (or,  at  most,  a  few  weeks)  of  labor  would  supply 
any  worker  with  a  set  of  tools  for  his  trade ;  now  not 
a  lifetime's  labor  would  make  a  poor  man  the  owner 
of  the  machine  by  which  he  gets  his  bread.  This  cost- 
liness of  tools  throws  all  production  into  the  hands  of 
the  capitalist  class.  The  poor  man,  robbed,  on  the  one 
hand,  of  his  access  to  the  soil,  and,  on  the  other,  of 
ownership  of  his  tools,  is  the  veritable  slave  of  the 
tool-and-land-owning  employer — a  wage  slave,  to  be 
sure,  not  a  chattel  slave,  but  slave  nevertheless;  for 
the  essence  of  slavery  is  dependence  on  the  will  of 
another  for  means  of  life. 

Consider  what  this  means  to  the  worker.     Tele- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY         30 1 

graph  operators  receive  from  $25  to  $80  a  month. 
Two  operators  working  a  wire  between  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  can  handle  500  messages  in  a  nine-hour 
day.  At  25  cents  a  message  the  company  receives  for 
this  service  $125,  of  which  it  pays  the  operators  from 
$2  to  $3  each,  and  has  $120  profit.  What  person  of 
any  sanity  will  defend  the  equity  of  such  a  transac- 
tion? Consider  what  it  means  to  the  public.  The 
Bureau  of  Labor,  in  its  report  to  Congress  March  3, 
1913,  showed  that,  while  under  the  last  agreement 
miners'  wages  had  been  increased  $4,000,000,  the  op- 
erating companies  had  increased  prices  of  coal,  os- 
tensibly to  recoup  this  loss,  but  really  to  the  amount  of 
$17,450,000.  The  companies,  therefore,  gained  $13,- 
450,000  by  a  transaction  that,  in  advance,  they  pro- 
tested would  be  utterly  ruinous  to  them,  pocketing  an 
additional  $3  for  every  $i  paid  in  increased  wages — 
and  the  consumer  of  coal  pays  all.  Under  cloak  of 
doing  justice  to  the  poor  miner,  albeit  a  justice  wrung 
from  them  by  an  aroused  public  opinion,  the  opera- 
tors commit  a  new  robbery. 

Exploitation  is  just  as  indefensible  on  principles 
of  the  Gospel  as  it  is  on  economic  principles.  It  is 
the  great  immorality,  the  fundamental  evil  of  society, 
not  only  because  of  its  observed  anti-social  effects,  but 
because  it  is  a  breach  of  the  command  of  Jesus,  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  For  no  man 
would  submit  to  be  exploited  if  he  had  any  means  of 
self-defense.  The  exploiter's  attempts  at  partial  rec- 
ompense in  the  various  forms  of  charity,  philanthropy, 
pensions,  and  profit-sharing  are  confession,  but  not 


3O2  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

restitution.  They  neither  imply  repentance  nor  prom- 
ise amendment.  "Most  philanthropy,"  says  Professor 
Ward,  "is  mere  temporary  patchwork  which  has  to 
be  done  over  and  over  again.  It  does  not  aim  or 
desire  to  do  the  kind  of  good  that  will  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  the  conditions  that  have  made  it  neces- 
sary. It  is  static,  not  dynamic."  1  The  United  Chari- 
ties Society  of  Chicago  found  that  70,000  persons  ap- 
plied for  aid  in  that  city  in  1912.  The  cases  were 
carefully  investigated,  and  the  following  causes  are 
given  for  the  poverty  of  17,000  cases: 

Unemployment,  4,620;  acute  illness,  4,311 ;  insufficient 
earnings,  1,576;  chronic  physical  disability,  1,443;  tuber- 
culosis, 1,361;  maternity,  1,285;  intemperance,  1,205;  ac~ 
cident,  674;  old  age,  634;  moral  deficiency,  468;  impris- 
onment, 388;  idleness,  360;  bad  housing,  318;  begging 
tendency,  272;  subnormal  mind,  239;  insanity,  237; 
venereal  disease,  202 ;  industrial  accident,  188 ;  immigrant 
within  three  years,  177;  incompetence,  157;  epilepsy,  140; 
occupational  disease,  46. 

The  list  should  be  attentively  pondered  by  those  ex- 
cellent persons  in  our  churches  who  still  insist  that 
poverty  is  due  to  defective  character,  and  can  be  com- 
pletely cured  by  the  practice  of  industry,  sobriety,  and 
economy.  The  italicized  cases  are  the  only  ones  that 
can  with  any  plausibility  be  attributed  to  defects  of 
character;  all  the  rest,  and  perhaps  these  also,  should 
be  charged  to  remediable  social  conditions,  remediable 
because  poverty  is  the  root  of  all.  No  individual  char- 

1  "Applied  Sociology,"  p.  29. 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   POVERTY  303 

acter  can  overcome  these  unfavorable  social  conditions 
under  all  circumstances;  and  organized  charity  has 
about  as  much  effect  on  them  as  it  has  on  the  revolu- 
tions of  Jupiter's  moons. 

It  is  growing  perception  of  these  facts  among  the 
working  class  that  so  embitters  them,  and  inclines 
them  at  times  to  the  use  of  forcible  means  of  redress. 
How  many  who  read  the  newspapers  have  reflected 
that  men  in  the  midst  of  a  Christian  civilization  are 
not  moved  to  undertake  crimes  like  those  of  the  Mc- 
Namaras  and  their  associates,  until  there  has  been 
bred  in  them  an  overmastering  sense  of  wrong  and 
injustice,  for  which  the  laws  provide  no  remedy — 
which  society,  indeed,  refuses  seriously  to  consider? 
But,  in  all  the  mass  of  comment  on  such  crimes,  how 
many  influential  voices  have  been  lifted  up  to  urge 
inquiry  into  the  cause  of  this  sense  of  injustice?  How 
many  have  asked  whether  American  workingmen  have 
wrongs  for  which  redress  is  impossible  under  our  so- 
cial system?  And,  if  it  should  turn  out  on  inquiry 
that  they  have  such  wrongs,  could  we  expect  them  to 
submit  to  them  without  violent  protest? 

If  we  will  not  consider  the  justice  of  our  attitude, 
perhaps  we  may  be  more  accessible  to  ideas  of  its  ex- 
pensiveness.  It  was  publicly  stated  that  the  trial  of 
the  McNamaras  and  their  associates,  thirty-eight  men 
in  all,  cost  the  government  a  million  dollars.  But  not 
one  dollar  was  expended  by  the  government  to  find 
out  what  caused  the  crime,  and  if  the  cause  is  remov- 
able. Does  this  strike  the  thoughtful  taxpayer  as  good 
economy?  Is  this  the  best  return  he  can  expect  for 


304  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

his  money?  Our  lavish  charities  are  just  so  much 
money  thrown  away.  If  an  equivalent  sum  were 
burned  every  year,  quite  as  much  would  be  accom- 
plished in  the  way  of  decreasing-  human  misery.  The 
exploiter  turns  out  more  nakedness  in  a  day  than  Dor- 
cas can  clothe  in  a  year,  causes  more  disease  in  a 
week  than  St.  Francis  can  relieve  in  a  lifetime,  drives 
more  men  and  women  into  vice  and  crime  in  a  year 
than  the  Salvation  Army  can  rescue  in  a  century. 
And  we  are  only  just  beginning1  to  question  whether 
this  exploiter,  if  he  gives  sterilized  milk  to  a  few 
babies,  may  not  be  the  highest  type  of  character  and 
citizenship ! 

Ill 

The  fundamental  condition  of  physical  life  is  suf- 
ficiency of  food,  sufficient  not  only  in  quantity  to  sat- 
isfy hunger,  but  in  quality  to  nourish  the  body.  Many 
have  "enough  to  eat"  and  yet  are  unfed,  because  they 
lack  what  is  known  in  dietetics  as  "a  well-balanced 
ration."  Enough  is  produced  to  feed  all  our  people. 
Why,  then,  do  they  lack  food?  Why  this  high  cost 
of  living,  which  one  of  our  American  multi-million- 
aires gravely  assures  us  is  really  the  cost  of  high  liv- 
ing? Is  it  true  that  the  poor  are  not  really  poor,  but 
only  extravagant?  Deficiency  of  food  is  far  more 
serious  than  deficiency  of  clothing  or  bad  housing.  A 
well-nourished  body  may  be  subjected  to  cold  and  dirt 
and  bad  air  and  feel  them  as  hardships  perhaps,  buf 
not  as  dangers.  In  the  past  two  decades  the  cost  of 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          305 

living  has  risen  twice  as  fast  as  wages,  and,  though 
wages  have  risen  slowly,  what  does  it  profit  a  man  to 
have  his  wages  increased  ten  per  cent,  and  his  cost 
of  living  twenty  per  cent.  ?  Perhaps  he  may  comfort 
himself  with  the  reflection  that  he  is  better  off  than  his 
fellow  whose  wages  have  not  been  raised  at  all,  and 
still  better  off  than  his  other  fellow  who  is  out  of 
work  and  has  no  wages,  but  that  is  cold  comfort. 
When  one  is  hungry  he  cannot  chuckle  much  because 
his  neighbor  is  hungrier  still,  and  perhaps  half -frozen 
to  boot. 

Here  is  one  "why."  The  value  of  the  food  products 
of  the  United  States,  estimated  on  the  basis  of  the 
official  returns,  is  $6,000,000,000,  while  their  cost  to 
consumers  is  not  far  from  $13,000,000,000.  The  dif- 
ference, considerably  more  than  100  per  cent.,  is  the 
necessary  cost  of  transportation  and  handling,  plus 
the  unnecessary  dividends  on  watered  stocks  and  the 
profits  of  middlemen.  The  consumer  has  it  in  his 
power  largely  to  eliminate  the  middleman,  especially 
with  the  aid  of  the  parcels  post,  and  if  he  continues 
to  suffer  from  this  source  it  will  be  his  own  fault.  The 
ease,  safety,  and  profitableness  of  cooperative  buying 
has  been  so  fully  demonstrated  by  European  combina- 
tions of  consumers  that  there  remains  nothing  to  say 
on  the  subject;  all  that  is  lacking  is  action.  In  collo- 
quial phrase,  this  matter  is  now  "up  to"  the  consumer 
himself. 

But  the  cost  of  transportation  and  handling  is  an- 
other matter.  Watered  stocks  are  beyond  the  con- 
sumer's reach.  We  are  only  beginning  to  appreciate 


306  THE    GOSPEL   OF    JESUS     • 

the  scandalous  things  that  have  been  done  by  our  great 
financiers,  who  are  said  to  be  so  indispensable  to  us. 
The  Adams  Express  Company  began  business  with 
a  valise  as  its  total  assets,  and  was  capitalized  out  of 
its  earnings.  Its  capital  stock  to-day  represents  no 
investment  whatever  by  stockholders,  but  only  sums 
that  have  been  skilfully  extracted  from  the  people's 
pockets  without  getting  the  thieves  put  in  jail.  In 
some  corporations  dividends- are  paid  on  "water,"  but 
the  Adams  Express  dividends  are  paid  on  air.  The 
same  is  true  in  the  main  of  all  the  other  express  com- 
panies; investments,  if  any,  have  been  so  small  as  to 
be  negligible;  capitalization  represents  earning  power, 
not  investment;  and  the  public  is  still  paying  to  these 
buccaneering  corporations  a  heavy  annual  tax  on  its 
willingness  to  let  the  companies  continue  their  rob- 
bery. 

The  railways  are  a  little  better,  but  not  so  much  in 
principle  as  in  degree.  A  physical  valuation  of  the 
railways  in  the  State  of  Kansas  was  undertaken  a 
few  years  ago,  with  this  result  as  to  the  Union  Pacific : 
Actual  cost  value  per  mile,  $27,297;  could  be  repro- 
duced for  $36,976  per  mile ;  is  taxed  at  a  valuation  of 
$40,860  per  mile;  is  capitalized  at  $146,391  per  mile. 
It  has,  therefore,  to  earn  dividends  on  over  $100,000 
per  mile  of  pure  "water,"  so-called  investments  that 
represent  no  payment  of  money  in  the  past  and  no 
value  of  any  kind  in  the  present.  And,  of  course, 
the  Union  Pacific  has  been  clamoring,  with  other  rail- 
ways, that  it  must  have  higher  rates  for  freight  or  it 
could  not  live! 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          307 

It  is  now  seriously  proposed  that  a  physical  valua- 
tion of  all  railways  shall  be  undertaken  as  a  prelimi- 
nary to  possible  acquisition  of  them  by  the  govern- 
ment and  the  substitution  of  public  for  private  owner- 
ship. This  means,  of  course,  the  ultimate  squeezing 
from  their  capitalization  of  the  enormous  quantity  of 
"water"  or  fictitious  value.  This  proposition  has 
awakened  once  more  those  who  on  such  occasions  be- 
wail the  hardship  to  innocent  owners  that  would  nec- 
essarily result.  However  unethical  the  original  trans- 
actions, it  is  said,  the  stocks  have  passed  into  other 
hands;  people  have  bought  in  good  faith  and  paid 
good  money  for  them.  Now  the  truth  is,  as  a  little 
reflection  will  show  any  one,  that  this  wail  about 
widows  and  orphans  and  other  innocents  has  no  foun- 
dation in  fact.  When  the  squeezing  process  begins 
there  will  be  no  innocent  owners.  The  facts  about 
fictitious  capitalization  have  been  published  far  and 
wide.  No  person  intelligent  enough  to  get  possession 
of  a  sum  of  money  to  invest  in  railway  stocks  can  be 
rationally  presumed  to  be  ignorant  of  these  facts.  If 
he  hereafter  buys,  or  hereafter  retains  ownership  of 
these  securities,  he  does  it  with  full  knowledge  of  their 
origin  and  nature,  and  of  the  possibility  of  govern- 
ment action  in  the  matter,  and  he  is  taking  a  gambler's 
chance  on  their  future  value.  If  he  loses,  he  should 
bear  his  loss  when  it  comes,  as  gamblers  say,  "like  a 
dead  game  sport." 

Mr.  Thomas  W.  Lawson's  writings  on  High  Fi- 
nance have  had  a  wide  circulation,  and  have  been  de- 
scribed as  a  "howling  success" — three  parts  howl  to  one 


308  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

of  success,  no  doubt.  The  author  may  be  as  big  a  hum- 
bug as  many  people  believe  him  to  be,  but  his  knowl- 
edge of  finance  and  practical  acquaintance  with  "se- 
curities" of  all  kinds  are  unquestioned.  His  figures 
have  not  been  questioned  by  the  world  of  High  Fi- 
nance, and  may,  therefore,  be  accepted  as  substan- 
tially correct.  He  tells  us  that  of  the  $60,000,000,000 
of  stocks  on  the  American  market  $40,000,000,000 
represents  pure  "water" ;  nevertheless  $2,000,000,000 
is  paid  on  this  fictitious  value  each  year  in  dividends. 
This  is  pure  theft  and  robbery,  if  there  ever  was  such 
a  thing.  This  is  exploitation  in  its  highest  flower. 
It  is  a  tax  paid  each  year  to  the  rich  by  the  poor,  nearly 
equal  to  the  entire  national  debt.1  One  can  imagine 
with  what  a  cry  of  protest  the  country  would  receive 
the  proposition  to  pay  off  the  national  debt  in  a  single 
year,  yet  this  would  lay  a  burden  of  taxation  on  the 
people  hardly  greater  than  this  annual  tribute  that  we 
pay  to  a  band  of  men  in  comparison  with  whom  the 
pirates  and  condottieri  of  former  ages  were  babes. 
This  tribute  is  paid  in  the  form  of  an  enhanced  price 
of  every  article  of  food  or  clothing  or  household  use 
that  the  poor  man  buys.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  cost  of 
living  is  so  high,  and  need  we  search  further  for  one 
of  the  great  causes  of  social  distress  ? 

If  one  at  first  suspects  Mr.  Lawson  of  gross  exag- 
geration, as  soon  as  he  begins  to  look  at  specific  in- 
stances he  makes  discoveries  in  the  light  of  which  any 

1  The  "World  Almanac"  gives  the  gross  national  debt,  October 
I,  1913,  as  $2,342,926,174.66,  and  the  net  debt,  after  deducting 
cash  in  the  Treasury,  as  $1,048,645,985.64. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    POVERTY  309 

assertion  seems  credible.  Here  is  a  single  case  out  of 
scores.  In  six  years  the  capital  of  the  New  York, 
New  Haven  and  Hartford  railway  was  inflated  by 
various  feats  of  re-Morganization  from  $85,000,000 
to  $350,000,000.  It  was  such  transactions  as  these, 
no  doubt,  that  President  Wilson  had  in  mind  when, 
in  one  of  his  campaign  speeches,  he  said  :  "The  bank- 
ing system  of  the  country  doesn't  need  to  be  indicted  ; 
it  is  convicted."  Involuntarily  we  have  all  been  part- 
ners in  this  business — silent  partners,  who  have  re- 
ceived no  share  of  the  profits.  Every  dollar  we  have 
deposited  in  a  bank  has  inevitably  found  its  way  to 
Wall  Street,  and  has  been  a  part  of  the  resources  of 
High  Finance  in  its  piratical  enterprises. 

There  has  been  much  controversy  of  late  over  the 
question  whether  a  Money  Trust  exists.  The  answer 
seems  to  depend  chiefly  on  a  definition.  The  term  may 
be  admitted  to  be  a  metaphor  rather  than  a  scientific 
description.  Nobody  who  uses  the  phrase  supposes 
that  there  is  a  charter  and  stockholders  and  directors, 
such  as  a  trust  implies.  What  people  mean  is  that 
there  is  an  actual  controlling  combination  of  the  great 
financial  interests.  There  is,  in  other  words,  "an  es- 
tablished identity  and  community  of  interest  between 
a  few  leaders  of  finance,  which  has  been  created  and 
is  held  together  through  stockholdings,  interlocking 
directorates,  and  other  forms  of  domination  over 
banks,  trust  companies,  railroads,  public  service  and 
industrial  corporations,  which  has  resulted  in  vast  and 
growing  concentration  and  control  of  money  and 
credit  in  the  hands  of  a  comparatively  few  men."  If 


3IO  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

such  a  condition  exists,  Money  Trust  is  by  no  means  a 
bad  name  for  it. 

Mr.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  in  the  Pujo  investigation, 
denied  that  there  was  a  Money  Trust  or  that  such  a 
thing  could  possibly  be  under  our  legal  and  economic 
system.  But  specific  testimony  in  the  same  investiga- 
tion showed  that,  by  a  system  of  interlocking  direc- 
torates, about  1 80  men,  directors  and  partners  in  eigh- 
teen firms,  banks,  and  trust  companies,  actually  con- 
trolled $25,000,000,000  of  capital.  Among  these  men 
three  were  acknowledged  leaders.  The  total  banking 
power  of  the  United  States  was  said  by  the  Comptrol- 
ler of  the  Currency  to  be  $23,000,000,000  in  1913. 
This  Wall  Street  group,  which  three  men  can  swing 
as  a  unit,  controls  a  money  interest  more  than  equal 
to  all  the  banking  capital,  reserves,  and  banknotes  in 
circulation.  And  yet  men  presumably  intelligent  ex- 
pect others  who  are  reputed  to  be  intelligent  to  believe 
them  when  they  declare  on  honor,  and  sometimes  on 
oath,  that  there  is  no  Money  Trust. 

Mr.  George  F.  Baker,  head  of  the  First  National 
Bank  of  New  York,  one  of  the  greatest  financial  insti- 
tutions of  the  country,  and  himself  one  of  the  three 
Wall  Street  leaders,  admitted  that  there  is  such  con- 
trol of  financial  resources  by  a  few  men  as  is  de- 
scribed above.  Such  control,  he  said,  "might  not  be 
dangerous,  but  still  it  has  gone  about  far  enough.  In 
good  hands  I  do  not  say  that  it  would  do  any  harm. 
If  it  got  into  bad  hands  it  would  be  very  bad."  By 
"good  hands"  Mr.  Baker  naturally  means  his  own 
hands,  the  Morgan  group.  But  to  the  people  at  large 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    POVERTY 

it  seems  that  any  hands  are  "bad  hands'/ 
so  vast  and  irresponsible  power  as  this.  Nor 
man  who  really  thinks  be  surprised  that  American  so- 
ciety is  seething  with  the  spirit  of  revolution  as  these 
facts  become  understood  by  the  masses  who  toil  in 
hopeless  bondage  that  the  Morgans  may  pile  up  mil- 
lions. 

And  the  new  banking  law,  enacted  in  1914,  was  so 
manipulated  during  its  passage,  with  the  full  approval 
of  President  Wilson,  that  it  has  delivered  over  the 
financial  resources  of  the  nation  more  completely  than 
ever  to  the  "interests."  When  the  organization  of 
the  regional  banks  has  been  completed,  and  the  system 
is  in  full  working  order,  people  will  comprehend  how 
they  have  been  betrayed  by  the  men  who  were  pre- 
tending to  serve  them.  They  will  awaken  to  the  fact 
that  the  Money  Trust,  instead  of  being  curbed,  has 
been  given  greatly  increased  powers.  That,  through 
its  control  of  credit,  it  has  every  commercial  enter- 
prise by  the  throat,  and  can  compel  it  to  obey  or 
strangle  it.  When  the  people  once  understand  what 
has  been  done,  what  they  will  do  to  the  politicians 
who  enacted  this  law  will  be  something  well  worth 
witnessing. 

But  even  if  these  facts  are  true,  and  there  is  a 
Money  Trust,  it  is  said  that  nothing  can  be  done  about 
it.  The  conditions  have  come  about  as  a  natural  de- 
velopment and  cannot  be  altered  by  legislation — as 
well  try  to  keep  back  the  tides  by  statute  as  resist  the 
sweep  of  economic  events.  "How  can  you  unscramble 
eggs  ?"  asked  Mr.  Morgan  on  one  occasion.  When  he 


312  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

said  it,  this  was  regarded  as  not  only  a  good  joke 
but  unanswerable  argument — by  Big  Business,  and  as 
something  of  a  puzzler  by  others.  But  the  house  of 
Morgan  has  unscrambled  one  basket  of  eggs  since  his 
death  by  retiring  from  twenty-seven  interlocking  di- 
rectorates. It  announced  that  it  did  this  as  a  mere 
beginning,1  and  in  deference  to  what  it  recognized  as 
a  strong  public  sentiment.  The  New  York,  New 
Haven  and  Hartford  railway,  which  had  been  brought 
into  virtual  bankruptcy  by  the  Morgan  policies,  has 
likewise  found  no  difficulty  in  relinquishing  its  control 
of  the  Boston  and  Maine  railway,  the  Eastern  Steam- 
ship Company,  and  about  a  score  of  other  corpora- 
tions larger  or  smaller.  It  has  also  been  found  pos- 
sible to  undo  the  reorganization  of  the  Rock  Island 
system  in  1902,  by  which  $140,000,000  of  "water" 
was  injected  into  its  stock.  This  was  accomplished  by 
the  now  familiar  device  of  organizing  a  "holding  com- 
pany/' a  railway  that  existed  on  paper  only.  It  is 
a  simple  matter  to  reverse  the  process  and  revive  the 
original  corporations  and  managements.  Some  eggs 
have  been  unscrambled;  therefore  all  can  be;  such  is 
the  reasoning  of  people  not  obfuscated  by  the  ideas 
and  methods  of  High  Finance.  The  reasoning  may 
be  hasty,  the  logic  faulty,  and  the  facts  otherwise. 
But  in  this  matter  we  are  all  citizens  of  Missouri ;  we 
insist  on  being  shown. 

How  could  such  a  state  of  things  have  come  about 
in  a  "free"  country?  Because  our  country  never  has 
been  really  free.  Because  our  conception  of  freedom 

firm  still  held  fifty  directorates  in  forty-two  companies. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          313 

has  been  liberty  of  the  individual  to  do  anything  in 
the  realm  of  economics  that  he  chose  to  do.  We  have 
limited  freedom  to  matters  within  the  scope  of  gov- 
ernment, to  civic  rights  and  privileges.  Our  indiffer- 
ence to  economic  freedom,  until  the  shoe  began  to 
pinch  our  tender  corns,  has  permitted  economic  an- 
archy, and  this  has  brought  about  in  a  natural  way 
union  among  exploiters  and  disorganization  among 
the  exploited.  "The  wolves  hunt  in  packs,  while  the 
watchdogs  snap  at  one  another,"  says  Professor  Ross. 
And  our  present  plight  is  also  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that  a  great  proportion  of  our  Christian  people  are 
still  wasting  their  time  in  little  skirmishes  with  the 
lesser  social  evils,  and  never  get  into  the  big  battle  at 
all.  They  still,  like  their  forebears,  place  personal 
righteousness  above  social  welfare,  and  cannot  see  that 
the  great  sins  of  our  day,  the  unforgivable  sins,  are 
social  transgressions. 

IV 

New  Zealand  has  given  countries  of  older  civiliza- 
tion a  lesson  in  the  possibility  of  decreasing  exploita- 
tion, with  the  prospect  of  one  day  ending  it  altogether. 
It  is  a  country  with  an  area  of  104,751  square  miles — 
a  little  more  than  that  of  the  Middle  States — with  a 
population  of  1,108,468  (in  1911),  fewer  by  100,000 
than  Connecticut  had  in  1910.  A  generation  ago  it 
seemed  certain  that  the  country  would  be  divided  into 
great  landed  estates.  Large  areas  were  bought  up 
and  held  for  speculative  purposes.  All  the  evils  of 


314  THE    GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

the  older  civilization  seemed  about  to  be  produced  in 
an  aggravated  form.  This  process  of  land  spoliation 
was  checked  in  1871  by  a  graduated  tax,  and  in  1891 
by  a  compulsory  purchase  act.  The  government  has 
retained  and  acquired  land,  until  it  controls  the  larger 
and  better  part,  which  is  let  on  perpetual  lease,  with 
revaluation  every  twenty-one  years.  No  one  is  to 
have  over  320  acres.  Under  this  policy  the  number  of 
farms  has  doubled. 

In  like  manner  the  State  has  taken  control  of  in- 
dustrial affairs.  Compulsory  arbitration  was  enacted 
in  1894,  in  a  broad  statute  that  applied  to  all  register- 
ing associations  of  workers  or  employers.  Strikes  and 
lockouts  are  prohibited :  in  case  of  a  dispute  arising,  a 
local  board  of  conciliation  may  be  called  by  either 
party  to  undertake  a  settlement.  If  this  board  fails, 
the  case  is  tried  by  an  arbitration  court,  consisting  of 
two  members  chosen  by  the  workers,  two  by  registered 
associations  of  employers,  and  one  supreme  court 
judge  appointed  by  the  government.  Disobedience  of 
the  decision  of  this  court  is  punishable  as  contempt. 
Varying  accounts  are  given  of  the  operation  of  this 
system,  because  those  who  have  written  about  it  have 
found  in  it  what  they  looked  for;  it  cannot  be  said 
to  have  had  dispassionate,  scientific  study.  It  seems 
clear,  however,  that  it  is  better  than  the  former  system 
of  industrial  war.  Naturally,  it  has  failed  to  give 
complete  satisfaction  to  either  employers  or  employees, 
but,  as  most  strikes  and  lockouts  end  in  a  compromise, 
compulsory  arbitration  on  the  whole  may  be  said  to 
work  fairly.  That  neither  party  is  satisfied  with  a 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          315 

decision  in  a  labor  controversy,  so  far  from  proving 
the  decision  to  be  unjust,  is  presumptive  evidence  of 
its  substantial  justice;  for  experience  shows  that  each 
party  demands  more  than  is  just. 

In  other  social  experiments  New  Zealand  has  also 
led  the  way.  It  has  had  a  system  of  old-age  pensions 
for  fourteen  years ;  it  has  had  seventeen  years  of  wom- 
an suffrage.  Voters  of  both  sexes  must  use  their 
right  of  suffrage  or  lose  it.  Government  loans  are 
made  to  settlers  and  farmers  at  low  rate  of  interest; 
government  savings  banks  and  government  life  in- 
surance at  cost  have  been  provided.  Of  course,  the 
State  has  taken  ownership  of  all  natural  monopolies : 
coal  mines,  railways,  telegraphs,  and  telephones.  In- 
cidentally it  may  be  remarked  that  a  telephone  costs 
$15  a  year  or  less,  and  that  more  telegraph  messages 
per  capita  are  transmitted  in  New  Zealand  than  in  any 
country  in  the  world — the  reason  being  that  the  cheap- 
ness, celerity,  and  secrecy  of  the  service  are  nowhere 
else  equaled. 

But  New  Zealand  is  only  on  the  way  toward  aboli- 
tion of  exploitation :  the  goal  is  yet  hardly  in  sight. 
This  is  because  the  wage  system  is  still  retained  as 
the  basis  of  industrialism.  Wages  and  exploitation 
are  inseparable.  Wages  can  never  rise  so  high  as  to 
abolish  exploitation,  because  the  moment  wages  reach 
a  point  where  no  profit  remains  to  the  capitalist,  it  is 
for  his  interest  to  give  up  his  business  rather  than  con- 
tinue it.  He  may  temporarily  continue  without  profit, 
and  even  at  a  loss,  but  it  must  be  with  a  rational  hope 
of  recouping  his  losses  by  future  profits.  Wages  can 


316  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

never  equal  the  value  of  the  product  of  labor  under 
capitalism ;  on  the  contrary,  they  must  be  much  lower 
as  a  rule,  because  of  the  deductions  necessary  under 
the  present  system.  The  margin  between  product  of 
labor  and  payment  of  wages  must  not  only  cover  the 
net  profits  of  the  employer,  but  many  other  things 
that  are  usually  charged  to  cost  of  production.  It 
covers,  for  instance,  rent,  interest  on  loans,  salaries, 
advertising,  taxes.  All  these  have  to  be  subtracted 
from  surplus  value,  that  is,  the  excess  of  value  of 
product  over  wages  of  the  workers.  It  is  clear  that* 
wages  cannot  rise  high  enough  to  be  even  approxi- 
mately equal  to  value  of  product.  The  capitalistic  sys- 
tem means  under  all  possible  circumstances  exploita- 
tion of  wage-workers.  It  is  impossible  to  abolish  this 
exploitation  without  abolishing  the  system  itself.  It 
is  impossible  greatly  to  lessen  the  exploitation,  which 
does  not  rest  on  the  will  of  the  employer,  but  on  the 
industrial  system. 

The  indirect  social  effects  of  many  of  these  items 
in  the  account  of  exploitation  are  quite  as  important 
as  their  direct  economic  significance.  For  instance,  the 
great  place  that  advertising  has  come  to  take  in  the 
system  has  had  an  effect  on  the  press  that  nobody 
could  have  anticipated  a  generation  ago.  Newspapers 
and  magazines  have  come  under  the  domination  of 
capitalism  by  a  necessary  process,  and,  as  a  result, 
have  become  means  of  spreading  ignorance  rather 
than  intelligence.  Between  their  suppression  of  un- 
welcome truth  and  their  perversion  of  fact  they  would 
be  an  even  more  serious  menace  to  popular  welfare 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          317 

than  they  are,  if  the  people  were  not  generally  aware 
of  their  habitual  untruthfulness.  A  single  newspaper 
in  New  York  receives  from  a  large  department  store 
the  sum  of  $300,000  a  year  for  advertising.  Would  it 
be  possible  to  procure  the  publication  in  that  news- 
paper of  any  matter  disagreeable  to  the  management 
of  that  department  store?  Only  a  remarkably  credu- 
lous person  would  believe  that  such  a  thing  could  be 
done.  Advertisers  may  be  guilty  of  disgraceful 
crimes,  they  may  be  prosecuted  by  the  government  for 
customs  frauds,  and  no  whisper  of  the  facts  will  be 
permitted  to  reach  the  public  through  the  newspapers 
that  they  subsidize.  The  slimy  trail  of  capitalism  is 
over  every  social  institution. 


The  complaint  against  the  ancient  Jeshurun  was 
that  he  waxed  fat  and  kicked  ;  the  modern  Jeshurun  is 
too  fat  to  kick,  but  he  is  suffering  from  the  same  dis- 
ease, an  overdose  of  prosperity.  The  Christian  re- 
ligion is  being  smothered  in  comfort,  and,  because  of 
its  decline,  America  is  fast  going  the  way  of  the  great 
Roman  empire,  in  which  the  cynical  and  inhuman  ex- 
ploitation of  other  classes  by  the  aristocracy  finally  de- 
pleted the  resources  of  the  Mediterranean  nations,  to 
the  degree  that  made  them  an  easy  prey  to  the  Teu- 
ton. Still  exploitation  continues  among  us,  exploita- 
tion of  those  already  poor,  for  the  enrichment  of  those 
already  rich.  It  is  still  true  that  to  him  that  hath 


318  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESU.S 

shall  be  given  and  he  shall  have  abundance,  while 
from  him  that  hath  not  even  that  which  he  hath  shall 
be  taken  away.  Will  the  people  who  profess  to  believe 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  continue  to  let  this  go  on  without 
protest,  without  seeking  a  remedy? 

A  remedy  ?  The  exploiter  is  prompt  with  his  reply : 
There  is  no  remedy;  we  need  no  remedy;  the  natural 
laws  of  society  may  be  trusted  in  the  long  run  to 
give  every  man  all  that  is  justly  his.  If  we  meddle 
with  those  laws  we  are  more  likely  to  do  harm  than 
good.  Shall  we  accept  this  as  sufficient?  Then  let 
us  bow  down  before  the  god  of  Things  As  They  Are 
and  do  all  in  our  power  to  keep  them  so.  Let  every- 
thing, even  the  law,  perish  rather  than  make  any 
change  in  the  industrial  system.  In  words  that  are 
now  classic,  "What's  a  little  thing  like  the  Constitu- 
tion between  friends?"  Sternly  repress  every  symp- 
tom of  dissatisfaction  among  the  workers.  If  the 
laborer  troubles  you,  and  particularly  if  he  has  the 
impudence  to  strike,  have  a  policeman  smash  him 
over  the  head  and  then  put  him  in  jail.  If  the  regu- 
lar policeman  is  not  "on  the  job,"  hire  some  thugs  to 
do  his  work  for  him.  Let  us  go  further  and  restore 
the  good  old  English  law  of  pious  young  Edward  VI, 
of  fragrant  Protestant  memory,  and,  if  any  man  re- 
fuses longer  to  work  at  the  same  wages  that  formerly 
satisfied  him,  brand  him  in  the  forehead  with  the 
letter  F  (which  they  say  stood  for  Falsity).  If  treat- 
ment of  these  effective  sorts  had  been  administered  to 
the  strikers  at  Lawrence  and  Little  Falls  and  Pater- 
son  (to  all  is,  of  course,  meant;  it  was  given  to  some 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    POVERTY  319 

without  much  effect),  they  would  have  been  "taught 
their  place"  and  would  have  gone  meekly  back  to 
work  for  what  their  employers  chose  to  give  them. 
We  lack  the  courage  to  apply  such  measures  ruth- 
lessly, but  we  are  visibly  improving  every  year,  and 
we  shall  become  quite  perfect  in  time.  So  screw  down 
the  safety-valve;  pile  on  the  coal;  make  Big  Business 
hum!  And  by  and  by,  when  we  all  go  skyward  to- 
gether, we  can  spend  the  abundant  leisure  of  eternity 
in  wondering  how  it  happened. 

But  there  is  another  answer  heard,  the  answer  to 
which  our  discussion  has  led  by  an  inexorable  logic: 
destroy  exploitation.  Make  the  wage  system  impos- 
sible. Transform  capitalism  into  cooperative  produc- 
tion. Make  workers  once  more  owners  of  the  means 
of  production,  so  that  they  may  be  certain  of  receiv- 
ing the  full  product  of  their  labor — less  the  small  de- 
duction that  must  always  be  made  for  the  good  of 
society.  Death  and  taxes  will  continue  to  be  the  great 
certainties  of  this  world  so  long  as  men  live.  The 
product  is  already  large  enough  for  the  needs  of  all; 
it  is  capable  of  indefinite  increase;  and  there  are 
wastes  that  we  might  eliminate  and  thus  double  the 
present  available  wealth.  There  is  no  reason  why 
poverty  should  continue. 

As  to  the  details  of  this  change,  by  precisely  what 
steps  we  shall  proceed  and  what  form  of  industrial 
and  social  organization  will  result,  there  is  much 
theorizing  but  no  knowledge.  A  learned  and  wise 
friend  used  to  say  that  he  liked  to  hear  people  proph- 
esy, for  then  he  at  least  knew  what  would  not  take 


32O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

place.  Society  and  industrialism  were  not  made  to 
order  to  fit  theories,  and  they  will  not  be  remade  to 
fit  theories.  They  grew  into  their  present  forms  and 
they  will  grow  into  new  forms.  All  speculation  about 
the  future  is  worse  than  wasted  time  and  energy. 
What  we  need  to  bend  every  energy  toward  is  imme- 
diate improvement  of  present  conditions  of  living. 
The  first  steps  are  plain  enough.  It  will  aid  to  abolish 
exploitation  if  we,  first  of  all,  decide  upon  common 
ownership  of  common  natural  resources :  including,  at 
the  very  least,  the  forests,  mines,  and  water  power. 
It  will  be  a  second  step  if  we  conclude  to  assert  com- 
mon ownership  of  all  means  of  transportation,  as  we 
have  already  of  roads  and  waterways.  This  will  make 
all  railways  and  canals  and  steamship  lines  and  the  air- 
ships of  the  future  public  property,  to  be  operated  at 
public  cost  and  public  profit.  It  will  be  a  further  step 
if  we  resolve  to  make  all  means  of  communication 
public  property,  as  we  now  do  the  post.  This  will 
mean  common  ownership  of  telegraphs,  telephones, 
ocean  cables,  wireless  systems. 

The  doing  of  these  things  promises  to  keep  us  busy 
for  some  years  to  come,  and  they  would  be  just  a  neat 
beginning.  The  next  step  would  be  common  owner- 
ship of  the  great  industrial  enterprises.  We  shall  have 
government  control  of  these  within  a  decade,  and 
from  that  to  government  ownership  would  be  no  long 
step.  It  may  even  be  taken  before  some  of  the  others ; 
for  this  is  an  attempt  to  show  logical  methods  of 
procedure,  not  the  actual  chronology,  which  may  be 
quite  different.  When  the  Steel  Trust  and  the  Oil 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    POVERTY  321 

Trust  and  the  Sugar  Trust  and  the  Woolen  Trust  and 
the  Whiskey  Trust  and  a  few  others  have  been  taken 
over  by  the  government  and  are  operated  for  the 
public  good  instead  of  private  profit,  we  shall  have 
proceeded  far  enough  on  the  road  toward  cooperative 
production  and  the  elimination  of  exploitation  to  know 
just  what  to  do  next.1  Nobody  now  living  need  be 
ashamed  to  confess  that  he  does  not  know.  If  any- 
body says  otherwise  he  is  either  self -deceived  or  a 
deceiver. 


VI 


But  may  not  profit-sharing  be  a  solution  of  the  in- 
dustrial problem?  Fresh  attention  has  been  directed 
to  this  solution  by  the  proposal  of  the  head  of  the 
Ford  Automobile  Company  to  distribute  $10,000,000 
of  profits  among  the  workers  during  the  year  1914. 
Mr.  Ford  has  been  a  workingman,  and,  now  that  he  is 
a  capitalist,  he  has  still  some  bowels  of  compassion 
for  the  class  from  which  he  rose.  He  knows  that  men 
who  work  for  wages  do  not  desire  charity  or  philan- 
thropy, but  justice;  and  he  professes  it  as  his  belief 

1  Besides  the  industrial  changes,  certain  fiscal  reforms  would 
go  far  to  lessen  exploitation,  by  turning  some  of  its  accumula- 
tions into  the  common  fund :  a  progressive  land  tax,  gradually 
increased  until  the  full  rental  value  is  taken;  a  graduated  in- 
come tax,  increasing  rapidly  for  all  incomes  over  $100,000;  a 
graduated  inheritance  tax,  on  the  same  principle.  These  three 
sources  of  revenue  would  be  ample  for  all  public  purposes,  and 
leave  the  entire  product  of  labor  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  producers. 


322  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

that  this  is  a  measure  of  justice — the  workers  have 
earned  this  $10,000,000  and  it  equitably  belongs  to 
them.  The  men  will  henceforth  work  in  three  eight- 
hour  shifts,  so  that  a  larger  number  than  before  will 
be  employed.  The  minimum  wage  paid  will  be  $5  a 
day,  and  some  workers  will  receive  more  than  twice 
that.  Earnings  varying  from  $1,599  to  $3>°°°  a  vear 
in  this  factory  will  contrast  remarkably  with  the  less 
than  $500,  which  is  said  to  be  the  average  annual  earn- 
ings of  workers. 

The  comments  and  discussion  on  Mr.  Ford's  pro- 
posal may  be  classified  under  two  heads :  objections  on 
the  part  of  capitalists  and  their  defenders  that  Mr. 
Ford's  undertaking  is  unwise  and  that  he  has  prom- 
ised too  much;  objections  on  the  part  of  workers  and 
their  friends  that  Mr.  Ford's  offer,  generous  as  it  is, 
promises  too  little. 

The  head  of  a  large  rolling  mill  makes  a  typical 
spokesman  of  the  former  class.1  He  is  much  afraid 
that  the  Ford  enterprise  will  be  misunderstood  and 
do  great  harm,  by  arousing  hopes  impossible  of  ful- 
filment and  making  labor  organizations  more  unrea- 
sonable in  their  demands.  He  argues  that  the  Ford 
Company  has  conducted  so  exceptional  a  business,  and 
has  enjoyed  profits  so  extraordinary,  that  it  has  no 
parallel  among  American  industries.  Few  concerns 
can  pay  six  per  cent,  on  their  capital.  "We  must, 
therefore,  understand  that  this  is  a  magic  proposition 

*  George  M.  Verity,  president  of  the  American  Rolling  Mill 
Company,  Middletown,  Ohio,  in  the  "Outlook"  of  March  21, 
1914- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY         323 

that  cannot  be  duplicated  once  in  ten  thousand  times, 
if  at  all." 

It  is,  indeed,  improbable  that  the  proposition  will 
be  duplicated,  but  not  for  the  reason  given.  Why  is 
the  business  of  the  Ford  Company  so  exceptional?  It 
is  well  known  that  as  keen  competition  exists  in  the 
automobile  industry  as  in  any  other  form  of  manu- 
facture. These  profits  do  not  represent  any  monopoly 
or  unfair  advantage,  resulting  from  natural  resources 
controlled  or  from  undue  favoritism  on  the  part  of 
railroads.  Has  there  been  a  moment,  from  their  be- 
ginning until  now,  when  the  oil  and  steel  industries 
could  say  as  much?  The  capitalists  will  have  to  try 
again — that  argument  will  convince  nobody.  It  is  well 
known  that  enormous  dividends  have  been  earned  and 
declared  (though  sometimes  partially  concealed  by 
bonuses  of  stock  or  bonds)  by  many  great  industrial 
and  commercial  enterprises. 

It  is  quite  right,  however,  to  say  that  the  Ford  Com- 
pany is  exceptional;  in  one  respect  it  is  absolutely 
unique.  It  was  incorporated  with  $2,000,000  capital 
stock,  actual  cash  investment.  Last  year  it  paid  profits 
of  $29,000,000  (another  statement  says  $25,000,000, 
but  we  need  not  bother  about  a  trifling  discrepancy  of 
$4,000,000).  Now  it  is  an  accepted  principle  of  High 
Finance  that  a  going  concern  should  be  capitalized, 
not  on  the  actual  investment,  but  on  earning  capacity. 
And  so,  if  Mr.  Ford  had  been  a  great  financier,  and 
not  a  mere  manufacturer  with  a  sense  of  justice,  he 
would  have  proceeded  promptly  to  capitalize  his  com- 
pany on  this  basis  of  earnings,  in  which  case  he  could 


324  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

have  issued  from  $400,000,000  to  $500,000,000  of  ad- 
ditional stock,  on  which  a  dividend  of  four  to  six  per 
cent,  could  be  paid  out  of  earnings.  At  one  stroke 
he  might  thus  have  put  himself  in  the  Rockefeller- 
Carnegie  class  and  made  the  second-rate  fortunes  of 
such  as  the  Morgans  look  like  the  proverbial  thirty 
cents.  He  could  thenceforth  have  done  as  other  finan- 
cier-manufacturers do — he  could  have  resisted  every 
demand  of  his  employees  for  better  wages,  on  the 
ground  that  if  wages  were  raised  dividends  could  not 
be  paid  to  stockholders.  And  he  could  have  pulled  out 
the  tremolo  stop  and  talked  about  those  poor  widows 
and  orphans.  But  he  did  none  of  these  things.  Mr. 
Ford  has  proved  himself  to  be  a  good  manufacturer, 
and  some  are  like  to  think  him  a  good  man,  but  no- 
body will  ever  accuse  him  of  being  a  good  financier. 
He  missed  the  Great  Opportunity  Of  His  Life. 

The  real  reason  why  this  is  a  "magic  proposition 
that  cannot  be  duplicated  once  in  ten  thousand  times" 
is,  not  that  there  are  not  hundreds  of  concerns  quite 
as  "exceptional"  as  the  Ford  Company,  but  because, 
among  all  of  our  captains  of  industry,  there  is  thus  far 
only  one  Ford — but  this  one  man  who  has  been  able  to 
resist  the  temptation  to  make  a  quick  fortune  through 
dishonest  capitalization;  only  one  man  who,  having 
risen  from  the  ranks  of  the  workers,  has  had  the  grace 
to  remember  the  pit  whence  he  was  digged.  The  rest 
have  forgotten  their  origin  as  quickly  as  possible  and 
have  gone  to  live  on  Fifth  Avenue  and  marry  their 
daughter  to  a  duke.  When  we  recall  the  early  lives 
of  nearly  all  our  American  millionaires,  and  behold 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    POVERTY  325 

their  unsympathetic  attitude  toward  the  toilers,  they 
become  at  once  difficult  to  comprehend  and  impossible 
to  forgive.  There  is  no  reason  whatever,  save  greed 
and  flint-hearted  selfishness,  why  similar  profit-shar- 
ing could  not  be  adopted  in  scores  of  our  larger  indus- 
tries, and  still  leave  fair  profits  on  the  actual  invest- 
ment. The  obstacles  are  not  industrial,  but  human 
and  "financial." 

The  second  class  of  objections  are  in  part  captious 
and  ungrateful,  and  in  part  theoretic.  To  the  theoretic 
objections  it  should  be  obvious  to  reply  that  Mr.  Ford 
has  not  undertaken  to  remake  the  whole  social  order 
and  establish  his  business  on  an  ideal  basis.  He  has 
only  undertaken  the  practical  problem  of  managing 
a  single  business  in  accord  with  his  own  sense  of  jus- 
tice and  to  promote  the  welfare  of  his  own  employees. 
There  are  soap-box  orators  on  every  corner  who  will 
undertake  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  whole  world  on 
five  minutes'  notice.  Let  us  not  be  ungrateful  to  the 
one  man  who  has  shown  some  insight  and  some  hu- 
man feeling  in  trying  to  solve  his  own  personal  prob- 
lem. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  proper  to  recognize  that  real 
criticism  of  Mr.  Ford's  experiment  has  been  and  will 
be  directed  at  this  point :  granting  its  personal  gener- 
osity, and  conceding  the  doubtful  point  that  it  is  likely 
to  be  followed  on  a  considerable  scale,  the  net  result  of 
profit-sharing  can  only  be  to  prolong  the  life  of  the 
present  industrial  system.  It  retains  the  wage  system 
and  exploitation,  while  it  considerably  reduces  the 
evils  of  exploitation  in  those  industries  where  it  ob- 


326  THE  GOSPEL  OF   JESUS 

tains.  If  profit-sharing-  of  this  kind  became  at  all  gen- 
eral in  the  large  industries,  it  would  tend  to  make  the 
fortunate  workers  who  received  its  benefits  callous  to 
the  ills  under  which  the  larger  part  of  the  workers 
would  still  groan.  It  would  build  up  a  little  aristoc- 
racy of  workers  who  would  form  a  class  by  them- 
selves, and  so  far  weaken  the  solidarity  that  labor  is 
now  slowly  gaining.  Workmen  who  enjoyed  incomes 
of  $1,500  to  $3,000  a  year  might  well  be  so  content 
with  their  own  lot  as  to  take  little  interest  in  improv- 
ing the  lot  of  others.  But,  as  there  is  little  prospect 
that  the  Ford  experiment  will  be  imitated,  the  hope 
of  the  workers  will  be  strengthened  to  demand  a  more 
radical  measure  of  industrial  reform  and  social  re- 
adjustment. 

Some  of  our  Churches  and  ministers  shrink  from 
all  radical  measures.  They  are  not  attempting  any- 
thing for  the  real  solution  of  the  problem  of  poverty, 
or  of  any  other  social  problem,  but  are  occupying 
themselves  with  what  they  call  social  service.  They 
wonder  that  they  accomplish  so  little,  but  they  are 
really  doing  all  that  a  puling,  piddling  thing  can  be 
expected  to  accomplish.  What  goes  under  the  name 
of  social  service  is  as  valuable  as  most  milk-and-water 
reforms.  It  is  a  house  of  refuge  for  people  whose 
consciences  are  troubled  about  existing  conditions,  but 
who  lack  intelligence  or  courage  to  recognize  and  ap- 
ply the  cure.  Until  all  things  that  men  need  in  com- 
mon and  use  in  common  shall  be  owned  in  common ; 
until  all  men  work  at  some  productive  labor  and  en- 


THE   PROBLEM   OF    POVERTY  327 

joy  the  fruits  of  their  labor;  we  shall  have  poverty 
and  crime  and  vice  and  disease. 

But  you  are  promoting  class  feeling,  objects  some 
horrified  reader,  and  how  do  you  reconcile  that  with 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus?  It  really  seems  to  me  that,  so 
long  as  one  class  robs  another,  one  may  try  to  rouse 
the  robbed  to  struggle  against  the  robber  and  over- 
come him,  without  any  impairment  of  the  message  of 
Jesus.  But  let  us  remember  always  that  the  class  con- 
sciousness of  the  worker  is  feeble  as  compared  to  the 
class  consciousness  of  exploiters  and  dividend-hunt- 
ers. The  worker  is  slowly  becoming  conscious  that 
he  has  been  robbed,  that  he  is  oppressed  and  denied 
justice;  but  the  exploiting  class  has  long  been  held 
together  as  a  unit  by  the  cohesive  force  of  plunder. 
The  remedy  for  class  feeling,  if  any  really  deplore 
it,  is  to  stop  the  robbery  of  one  class  by  another  and 
see  to  it  that  justice  is  done.  This  will  not  be  atone- 
ment for  the  past,  but  it  will  be  some  security  for  the 
future.  The  descendants  of  the  men  who  spilled  the 
tea  into  Boston  harbor  and  gathered  on  the  green  at 
Lexington  will  never  tamely  submit  to  injustice.  They 
will  seek  redress,  by  peaceable  means  if  possible,  by 
violent  means  if  they  must,  but  submit — never! 

The  great  bulk  of  the  working  class  have  proved 
themselves  exceedingly  slow  in  the  acquirement  of 
class  consciousness,  and  still  slower  in  ability  to  com- 
bine in  common  action.  They  have  proved  over  and 
over  again  that  they  cannot  get  the  most  elementary 
ideas  about  their  own  welfare  into  their  heads  without 
a  surgical  operation.  But  to  be  clubbed  over  the  head 


328  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

by  a  brutal  policeman,  or  one  of  the  thugs  called  spe7 
cial  officers  that  are  so  great  favorites  in  these  days 
with  the  employing  class,  is  a  very  good  substitute  for 
surgical  operations.  It  has  knocked  into  many  a  head 
the  idea  that  the  interests  of  capital  and  labor  are 
opposed  and  irreconcilable,  instead  of  identical,  as  it 
has  been  the  fashion  of  economists  to  assert.  This  is 
no  new  experience,  however;  all  social  reforms  have 
to  be  carried  against  the  determined  opposition  of 
those  who  are  most  to  benefit  from  them.  The  aver- 
age worker  would  as  soon  vote  against  his  own  in- 
terests as  eat,  and  would  rather  die  than  think. 

The  workers  organized  into  trades  unions  and  rep- 
resented by  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  pro- 
claim in  no  uncertain  terms  that  they  have  no  quarrel 
with  the  present  system  of  exploitation,  no  desire  to 
do  away  with  the  legalized  robbery  of  the  weak  by  the 
strong  called  profit.  No,  what  they  demand  is  merely 
a  larger  share  of  the  swag.  Their  past  and  present 
portion  of  the  plunder  is  too  small  to  please  them; 
give  them  a  greater  percentage  and  the  plundering 
may  go  on  forever,  for  them.  Admirable  ethics ! 

The  objection  to  class  feeling,  however,  grows  out 
of  entire  misapprehension  of  its  origin  and  nature. 
A  few  words  ought  to  make  this  much  beclouded  mat- 
ter clear.  By  far  the  largest  part  of  the  activities  of 
any  society,  and  of  all  its  individual  members,  are 
concerned  with  the  production  and  distribution  of  the 
necessaries  of  life :  the  majority  of  mankind  are  never 
emancipated  from  the  daily  struggle  to  procure  food, 
clothing  and  shelter.  These  are  determining  factors 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY          329 

of  life.  The  psychological  processes  of  men  are 
mainly  controlled  by  this  physical  necessity.  Every 
man's  mental  state,  what  we  call  his  stock  of  ideas, 
is  the  product  of  the  constantly  repeated  experiences 
of  this  struggle  for  existence,  and  the  sense  percep- 
tions that  come  to  him  during  the  struggle.  Class  dis- 
tinctions, class  psychology,  and,  therefore,  class  con- 
sciousness become  possible,  nay  inescapable,  the  mo- 
ment the  original  conditions  of  life  become  modified 
through  common  effort — whenever  the  accumulated 
wealth  of  the  community  makes  it  possible  for  the 
stronger,  physically  and  mentally,  to  exploit  the 
weaker.  Class  feeling  is  the  result  of  exploitation,  and 
the  only  way  to  eradicate  it  from  society  is  to  elimi- 
nate exploitation. 

To  abolish  poverty  has  been  declared  by  the  Fed- 
eration of  Christian  Churches  to  be  the  goal  of  Chris- 
tian effort.  It  may  well  be  doubted  if  those  who 
framed  this  declaration,  or  those  who  have  welcomed 
it,  have  any  real  apprehension  of  its  meaning.  But 
at  all  events,  the  Churches  have  undertaken  a  man's 
job,  one  that  may  well  enlist  all  the  energies  and  rouse 
all  the  enthusiasm  of  Christians.  It  is  a  goal  that  their 
Master  would  have  heartily  approved.  It  is  making 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  mean  something  to  an  unbelieving 
and  justly  incredulous  world.  For  the  Church  has 
hitherto  been  playing  with  the  problem,  not  seriously 
trying  to  solve  it.  The  Church  has  been  too  long  con- 
tent to  enact  the  Good  Samaritan,  to  pour  oil  and  wine 
on  the  wounds  made  by  brigands,  but  it  is  now  sum- 
moned to  clean  up  the  road  to  Jericho  and  put  down 


330  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

brigandage.  The  Church  still  gives  quinine  and  can- 
not be  induced  to  undertake  the  drainage  of  the 
swamps.  "Millions  for  charity,  but  not  a  cent  for  jus- 
tice" has  been  well  said  to  be  her  motto. 

And  we  cannot  wonder.  The  Church  has  always 
been  in  an  alliance,  more  or  less  unconscious,  with 
the  powers  that  prey.  The  exploiter  and  the  priest 
have  been  twin  brothers;  capitalism  and  the  Church 
are  to-day  twin  forces.  How  long?  "Issachar  is  a 
strong  ass,  couching  between  two  burdens"  is  a  text 
that  might  have  been  taken  to  describe  the  laborer  of 
a  former  generation ;  but  the  laborer  of  to-day  is  tired 
of  his  burdens  and  he  no  longer  couches.  He  has  risen ; 
he  has  shaken  himself;  he  is  beginning  to  feel  his 
strength,  though  as  yet  he  has  used  it  with  all  the  in- 
telligence of  the  ass.  But  he  is  learning.  And  the 
time  is  approaching,  it  may  be  almost  here,  when,  if 
the  wrongs  of  society  are  not  set  right  by  those  who 
have  caused  them  and  those  who  have  profited  by 
them,  they  will  be  set  right  by  those  who  have  suf- 
fered from  them.  Woe  worth  the  day!  By  terrible 
things  in  righteousness  will  God  answer  us,  if  we  delay 
to  do  justice. 

The  Church  will  ere  long  have  to  make  its  ultimate 
choice  between  exploiters  and  exploited,  between  those 
who  do  and  those  who  suffer  wrong,  between  those 
who  try  to  do  justice  and  those  who  make  justice  a 
mockery.  Some  say  the  Church  has  already  chosen, 
and  chosen  the  side  of  the  oppressor.  There  are  facts 
that  point  that  way,  sinister  facts,  deplorable  facts. 
But  one  cannot  believe  that  organized  Christianity  has 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    POVERTY  33! 

deliberately  made  up  its  mind  to  turn  the  back  on  the 
teachings  of  the  Nazarene.  One  cannot  believe  that 
it  has  committed  the  great  apostacy  and  denied  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus — yet.  But  the  final  choice  cannot  be 
long  postponed.  The  Church  cannot  serve  God  and 
Mammon,  and  already  the  voice  comes,  "Choose  ye 
this  day  whom  ye  will  serve."  The  day  has  passed 
when  the  clergy  can  dine  with  the  rich  and  preach 
at  the  poor.  A  be-content-with-your-lot  religion  and 
a  beyond-the-stars  Heaven  can  no  longer  be  used  as  a 
soothing  syrup  to  silence  the  cries  of  the  oppressed. 
Some  of  these  words  will  be  thought  irreverent  by 
some  readers,  but  reverence  for  reality  is  more  relig- 
ious than  reverence  for  the  past.  Those  Christians 
who  hope  to  resist  the  sweep  of  the  world  toward 
righteousness  by  accusations  of  "heresy"  and  thun- 
dering anathemas  are  as  wise  as  those  Boxers  who 
withstood  modern  artillery  by  beating  gongs.  When 
the  first  railway  trains  ran  across  the  Western  plains 
the  Indians  thought  to  lasso  the  locomotive  and  pull 
it  from  the  track.  The  result  was  disastrous — for 
the  Indians.  But  lassoing  a  locomotive  is  a  wholly 
practicable  thing  compared  to  stopping  the  drift  of  so- 
ciety toward  universal  justice,  peace,  and  prosperity. 
Upon  the  wall  of  any  Church  that  opposes  triumphant 
democracy  may  already  be  seen  the  TEKEL,  UPHARSIN. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE    PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS" 

WE  hear  much  about  the  "lawlessness"  of  the 
American  people ;  much  in  the  way  of  outcry  and  de- 
nunciation, little  in  the  way  of  analysis  and  search 
for  cause  and  remedy.  Few  pause  in  their  denuncia- 
tions to  inquire,  Is  this  lawlessness  a  symptom  of 
disease  or  an  evidence  of  health?  Let  us  lay  aside 
our  reverence  for  venerable  phrases  and  seek  for 
truth.  What  is  "law  and  order"?  Why  should  we 
respect  it?  Nothing  can  be  long  respected  unless  it  is 
respectable;  and  the  question  therefore  assumes  this 
form :  Is  the  system  that  we  call  law  and  order  worthy 
of  respect? 

To  answer  this,  we  must  examine  the  system.  Law 
and  order  is  the  body  of  rules  and  regulations  designed 
to  protect  and  preserve  existing  social  arrangements. 
Sociology  establishes  the  principle  that  government 
and  laws  will  always  represent  the  interests  strong 
enough  to  control.  When  organization  of  the  social 
group  takes  the  form  of  a  landed  aristocracy,  govern- 
ment will  embody  in  legislation  and  enforce  with  all 
its  civil  and  military  powers  ethical  ideas  peculiar  to 
a  landed  aristocracy.  This  is  why  in  England  crimes 
against  property  have  for  ages  been  punished  with 
more  severity  than  crimes  against  the  person,  murder 

332 


THE    PROBLEM    OF      LAWLESSNESS  333 

alone  excepted.  The  laws  against  poaching  are  an 
excellent  illustration  of  the  influence  of  aristocratic 
ethics  on  law. 

In  all  civilized  lands  to-day  the  dominant  social 
order  is  capitalistic;  the  old  aristocracy  and  the  new 
industrial  princes  have  joined  forces;  money  rules 
the  world.  Law  and  order  is,  therefore,  a  system  de- 
signed to  protect  and  preserve  capitalism.  Any  system 
must  be  judged  by  its  purpose.  Law  and  order,  then, 
must  be  held  to  be  as  respectable  as  capitalism,  and  no 
more  so.  The  controlling  interests  secure  the  election 
of  lawmakers  who  will  do  their  bidding.  If  that  is 
not  representative  government,  what  would  be?  The 
lawmakers  represent  those  who  really  elect  them,  not 
those  who  meekly  vote  for  them. 

Defenders  of  the  present  system  will  attempt  in 
vain,  therefore,  to  invest  law  and  order  with  any  sac- 
rosanct character.  It  is  like  the  source  from  which 
it  sprang,  tainted  with  injustice  and  unethical  princi- 
ples in  every  part.  It  is  worthy  of  respect  only  as  a 
barrier  against  social  chaos.  Most  of  us  approve 
law  and  order,  merely  because  we  are  not  anarchists. 
For  a  long  time  to  come  the  meek  and  unselfish  and 
weak  will  need  protection  against  the  strong  and  self- 
ish and  brutal.  But  that  protection  should  be  com- 
posed of  a  maximum  of  justice  and  a  minimum  of 
force,  whereas,  as  our  closer  examination  will  show 
us,  existing  law  and  order  may  be  not  unfairly  de- 
scribed as  a  minimum  of  justice  and  a  maximum  of 
force. 

To  be  sure,  law  has  always  professed  as  its  end  the 


334  THE  GOSPEL    OF   JESUS 

securing  of  justice  between  man  and  man.  But  in 
practice,  law  is  of  necessity  the  expression  of  the  ideas 
of  justice  entertained  by  the  ruling  class.  One  man 
cannot  be  trusted  to  be  just  in  his  conduct  toward 
others,  else  there  would  be  no  need  of  law;  no  more 
can  one  class  be  trusted  to  be  just  to  another  class. 
But  law  is  the  way  in  which  the  capitalistic  class 
thinks  other  classes  ought  to  conduct  themselves,  and 
how  capitalists  should  treat  other  classes.  Order  is 
the  compulsion  of  the  other  classes  by  the  capitalistic 
class  to  accept  this  definition  of  conduct  and  rights. 
Order  means  that  the  policeman  with  his  club,  and  the 
soldier  with  rifle  and  bayonet  and  cannon,  will  com- 
pel the  other  classes  to  do  what  the  capitalistic  class 
thinks  they  ought  to  do.  When  analyzed  to  the  bot- 
tom, do  law  and  order  mean  anything  else  than 
this?  Capital  says  to  labor:  Be  law-abiding:  we 
make,  interpret,  and  administer  the  law.  Can  such  a 
system,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  any  close  approxi- 
mation to  justice?  And  if  not,  is  it  respectable? 

Again,  law  professes  to  have  as  its  end  the  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number.  It  is  a  fine-sounding 
maxim  that  has  deceived  generations.  Because  every 
ruling  class,  in  making  the  law,  interprets  this  maxim 
to  mean  that  the  greatest  number  is  Number  One.  In 
other  words,  the  ruling  class  looks  out  for  its  own 
interests  first  of  all.  Only  when  it  believes  these  to  be 
secured  does  it  turn  its  attention  to  the  interests  of 
others,  and  it  never  really  cares  much  for  any  inter- 
ests save  its  own.  Its  benevolence  and  philanthropy 
are  languid,  spasmodic  and  lukewarm;  its  selfishness 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS"  335 

is  active,  continuous  and  powerful.  The  capitalistic 
ideal  of  law  and  order  is  the  creation  and  maintenance, 
by  statutes,  courts,  and  physical  force,  of  those  condi- 
tions under  which  exploitation  of  the  worker  can  be 
conducted  without  interference  or  interruption.  Any 
who  presume  to  interfere  or  interrupt  are  to  be  sup- 
pressed with  neatness  and  dispatch. 


The  whole  legal  system  of  the  United  States  is 
therefore  established  on  an  indefensible  basis,  is  funda- 
mentally unjust  and  certain  to  be  defective  in  detail. 
To  illustrate  this  adequately  would  require  a  large 
volume,  and  in  the  pages  here  available  only  a  few 
instances  can  be  given. 

Two  great  classes  of  abuses  should  be  carefully  con- 
sidered by  any  who  would  comprehend  the  nature  and 
social  effects  of  the  present  system.  The  first  of  these 
is  procedure  by  injunction,  together  with  its  supple- 
ment :  the  power  of  the  court  to  punish  for  contempt. 
Workers  are  justified  in  maintaining  that  this  branch 
of  the  law  is  generally  used  for  their  oppression.  The 
injunction  has  been  used  by  courts  with  utmost  reck- 
lessness of  constitutional  and  statute  rights  of  work- 
ers, with  respect  for  nothing  but  wishes  of  employers. 
In  the  great  steel  strike  workers  were  enjoined  "from 
peaceably  discussing  the  merits  of  their  claim  with  the 
men  that  were  at  work,  even  though  the  latter  might 
raise  no  objection."  In  a  similar  case  peaceful  picket- 


336  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

ing  was  declared  illegal  by  English  courts,  and  Parlia- 
ment promptly  passed  a  statute  making  it  legal.  But 
Congress  and  legislatures  have  done  nothing  for  the 
relief  of  American  workingmen.  Why?  In  the  case 
of  the  Sun  Printing  Company  the  Supreme  Court  of 
New  York  in  1899  enjoined  the  striking  printers  from 
giving  their  side  of  the  controversy  to  the  public, 
while  the  Sun  was  free  to  print  whatever  it  chose. 
In  1900  the  Cigarmakers  International  Union  were  en- 
joined from  approaching  their  former  employers,  even 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  an  amicable  settlement; 
and  from  paying  money  to  the  strikers  to  support 
their  families  during  the  strike.  Could  tyranny  go 
further  in  Russia?  What  becomes  of  our  constitu- 
tional guarantees  of  personal  liberty  and  freedom  of 
speech  under  such  decisions? 

And  if  such  tyrannical  interference  of  the  courts 
is  disobeyed  the  courts  claim  and  exercise  the  right  to 
punish  the  disobedience  as  contempt,  inflicting  fines 
and  imprisonments  at  their  pleasure.  Thus  the  citizen 
is  deprived  of  his  constitutional  right  of  trial  by  jury, 
and  a  judicial  despotism  is  created  that  would  be  in- 
tolerable in  any  country,  but  is  peculiarly  intolerable 
when  it  is  found  to  exist  only  in  a  country  that  pro- 
fesses to  secure  to  every  man  his  inalienable  right  to 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

The  plea  on  which  such  injunctions  are  justified  is 
that  they  are  necessary  to  protect  property  rights,  so 
endangered  that  a  less  summary  method  might  result 
in  irreparable  loss.  The  injunction  is  granted  on  an 
ex  parte  affidavit  which  recites  facts  that  are  alleged 


THE   PROBLEM    OF      LAWLESSNESS  337 

to  justify  action.  But  the  court  never  takes  into  ac- 
count this :  that,  if  the  facts  recited  in  the  affidavit  do 
not  exist,  or  if  other  facts  not  cited  would  wholly 
alter  the  complexion  of  the  case,  an  irreparable  hurt 
may  be  done  to  the  party  against  whom  the  injunction 
is  issued.  This  is  precisely  what  usually  happens.  For 
the  affidavits  are  always  partisan,  and  not  infrequently 
stuffed  with  perjury;  their  object  is  merely  to  deceive 
the  court,  which  nevertheless  could  not  be  deceived 
were  it  not  a  willing  party  tc  the  deception.  The  ob- 
ject for  which  the  injunction  is  issued  in  a  labor  con- 
troversy, as  every  citizen  knows  but  the  judge,  is  not 
to  protect  property  or  rights  of  person,  but  to  defeat 
the  strike.  The  injunction  happens  to  be  the  most 
powerful  weapon  that  the  law  just  now  puts  into  the 
hand  of  the  capitalist,  and  courts  devoted  to  his  inter- 
ests obligingly  hand  out  this  weapon  to  him  whenever 
he  demands  it. 

All  have  read  about  the  tyranny  of  Charles  I  and 
the  revolution  that  it  provoked  in  England.  But  to 
how  many  readers  has  it  occurred  that  an  exactly 
similar  tyranny  is  in  process  of  establishment  in  our 
own  country?  Let  us  remind  ourselves  of  the  judicial 
machinery  by  which  the  Stuart  tyranny  was  upheld 
and  exercised — the  courts  of  the  Star  Chamber  and 
High  Commission — how  by  ingenious  construction  of 
Acts  of  Parliament  and  gradually  stretching  their  pre- 
rogatives these  courts  finally  threatened  to  make  a  new 
system  of  law  by  judicial  decision,  to  overthrow  the 
ancient  laws  of  England  and  so  deprive  Englishmen 
of  the  right  secured  to  them  by  Magna  Charta,  that 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

no  man  should  be  deprived  of  liberty  or  property  save 
by  verdict  of  a  jury  of  his  peers.  Under  the  rule  of 
Laud  and  Strafford,  the  chief  ministers  of  Charles, 
Englishmen  were  tried  without  jury,  denied  privilege 
of  counsel,  refused  subpoena  of  witnesses;  and  these 
courts  proceeded  by  summary  action  against  alleged 
offenders  and  inflicted  on  them  every  penalty  except 
death. 

This  is  the  exact  process  in  which  our  courts  are 
engaged  to-day,  and  they  have  already  gone  far  to 
parallel  the  most  high-handed  outrages  of  the  Star 
Chamber  and  High  Commission.  Under  pretext  of 
protecting  endangered  property  rights,  they  violate 
fundamental  human  rights,  issuing  injunctions  that 
forbid  such  free  speech  and  action  as  Englishmen  and 
Americans  have  enjoyed  from  time  immemorial;  and 
then,  under  further  pretext  of  preserving  their  own 
dignity  and  authority,  they  punish  disobedience  to 
their  commands  by  fine  and  imprisonment  at  their 
pleasure,  without  trial  by  jury.  In  time  to  come, 
Samuel  Gompers  and  John  Mitchell  will  be  lauded  as 
patriots  like  John  Hampden  for  courageously  resist- 
ing such  judicial  tyranny,  while  the  judges  who  prac- 
tice it  will  stand  in  the  pillory  of  history  alongside 
of  Laud  and  Strafford  and  the  judges  who  upheld 
the  legality  of  ship-money.  The  parallel  may  yet  go 
further:  Laud  and  Strafford  and  their  royal  master 
lost  their  heads  in  the  revolution  they  provoked. 

Preachers  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  should  clear  their 
minds  of  cant,  and  no  longer  exhort  men  to  respect 
that  which  is  not  respectable,  no  longer  call  justice 


THE    PROBLEM    OF      LAWLESSNESS  339 

that  which  is  the  essence  of  tyranny,  no  longer  praise 
conduct  that  is  criminal.  For  there  is  no  form  of 
criminality  so  deeply  heinous,  so  deadly  in  its  social 
consequences  as  that  of  the  judge  whose  function  is 
to  administer  justice,  but  who  sets  himself  deliberately 
to  administer  injustice.  How  would  it  do  for  the 
clergy  to  preach  a  few  sermons  on  such  texts  as 
"Cursed  be  he  that  perverteth  the  judgment  of  the 
stranger,  fatherless,  and  widow,  and  all  the  people 
shall  say,  Amen"  ?  1 

This  judicial  tyranny  is  the  more  remarkable  in  a 
"free"  country,  because  it  is  a  relic  of  absolute  mon- 
archy. In  ancient  theory,  the  king  was  the  fountain 
of  all  justice  and  judges  were  but  his  deputies.  An 
insult  offered  them  was  an  insult  to  the  king;  dis- 
obedience to  their  mandates  was  equivalent  to  trea- 
son. Punishment  for  contempt  was  inflicted  for  of- 
fenses committed  in  the  presence  of  the  court.  Later 
courts  of  equity  assumed  the  same  character  and  pow- 
ers. In  their  present  form  contempt  proceedings  are 
of  recent  origin,  though  based  on  this  ancient  prece- 
dent. The  injunction  was  also  until  recently  granted 
sparingly,  and  only  in  real  emergencies.  The  great 
extension  of  these  powers,  assumed  from  the  first  by 
courts  without  authority  of  law,  and  stretched  to  the 
breaking  point  and  beyond  within  the  last  few  decades, 
recalls  to  mind  that  such  powers  never  were  conferred 
on  courts  by  the  people,  through  any  constitution  or 
statute.  Now  that  these  usurped  powers  are  con- 
stantly and  notoriously  abused,  inquiry  into  their  f  oun- 

*Deut.  27:19. 


34O  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

dation  becomes  necessary  and  inevitable.  And  such  in- 
quiry makes  it  plain  to  the  layman,  however  the  law- 
yer may  deceive  himself,  that  the  judge  is  himself  a 
lawbreaker  whenever  he  punishes  any  man  for  any  of- 
fense (except  perhaps  flagrant  misbehavior  in  the 
court  room)  without  trial  by  jury  and  a  verdict  of 
guilt.  The  law  under  which  the  judge  acts  is  a  law 
made  by  judges,  and  never  sanctioned  by  the  people, 
save  by  their  silence — a  silence  of  ignorance. 

What  is  called  "law  and  order"  too  often  means, 
therefore,  simply  the  lawlessness  of  judges.  The  law- 
lessness of  a  judge  is  no  more  respectable  than  the 
lawlessness  of  a  mob — indeed,  it  is  less  respectable. 
The  mob  nearly  always  has  the  purpose  to  execute 
what  we  commonly  call  justice,  and  it  often  does  ex- 
ecute "justice,"  in  an  irregular  and  unlawful  manner 
doing  what  judge  and  jury  and  sheriff  might  and 
should  do  in  the  premises.  The  danger  of  mob-law  is 
that  the  mob  is  peculiarly  liable  to  be  wrong  as  to 
the  fact,  and  so  to  punish  an  innocent  person.  A 
judge  is  certain  to  be  more  accurately  informed  as  to 
the  fact,  but  the  danger  of  judge-law  is  that  the  judge 
often  has  no  intention  to  do  justice,  or  entirely  mis- 
understands what  justice  is.  Now,  if  we  were  com- 
pelled to  choose  between  the  two  forms  of  lawlessness : 
the  mob,  intending  justice,  but  liable  to  be  wrong  as 
to  fact,  and  the  judge,  right  as  to  fact  but  intending 
injustice,  many  considerations  might  lead  us  to  say: 
Give  us  mob-law  rather  than  judge-law.  But  we  are 
not  yet  compelled  to  make  this  choice.  An  old  maxim 
says,  Of  two  evils  choose  the  less;  but  a  better  rule 


THE   PROBLEM    OF      LAWLESSNESS"  34! 

is,  Of  two  evils  choose  neither.  We  can  reform  our 
judicial  system  and  take  from  judges  the  power  to 
make  law.  We  can  and  must  see  to  it  that  the  power 
of  courts  to  grant  injunctions  is  very  strictly  limited, 
and  that  their  power  to  punish  for  contempt,  other 
than  misbehavior  in  court,  is  wholly  abolished.  Any 
man  who  is  accused  of  disobeying  the  mandate  of  a 
court  should  be  indicted  and  tried  by  a  jury  in  another 
court,  as  for  any  other  crime.  When  a  judge  proceeds 
summarily  for  alleged  contempt,  he  violates  the  funda- 
mental maxim  of  equity  that  forbids  a  judge  to  sit  in  a 
case  in  which  he  is  personally  interested.  Judges  have 
proved  to  a  demonstration  that  they  cannot  be  trusted 
with  either  of  these  powers,  and  that  their  present  use 
of  them  is  incompatible  with  the  institutions  of  a  free 
country. 

These  are  the  views  of  a  layman  in  the  law,  but 
they  have  the  support  of  the  best  professional  au- 
thority. In  an  address  delivered  in  New  York,  in 
January,  1914,  Chief  Justice  Walter  Clark,  of  the 
North  Carolina  Supreme  Court,  said  that  all  the  pow- 
ers of  government,  both  Federal  and  State,  lie  at  the 
feet  of  a  judicial  oligarchy.  "The  overwhelming  pre- 
ponderance of  the  judiciary,"  he  declared,  is  "without 
a  line  in  the  constitution  to  authorize  it."  We  may 
fairly  set  this  against  the  amazing  pronouncement  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Idaho  that  "the  inherent  power 
of  the  court  to  punish  for  contempt  cannot  be  inter- 
fered with  or  abridged  by  the  legislature."  We  shall 
see  what  the  people  will  do  to  this  doctrine  of  "in- 
herent power"  of  the  courts  they  have  created  to  ad- 


342  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

minister  justice,  how  they  will  treat  this  new  notion 
of  judicial  divine  right.  Americans  are  still  fully  per- 
suaded that,  if  there  is  any  "divine  right"  that  will 
bear  inspection,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  rule 
themselves,  not  to  be  ruled  by  kings,  legislators,  or 
judges. 

Only  a  decade  ago  it  was  still  the  general  belief  that 
our  courts  were  the  one  institution  left  us  that  was 
worthy  of  entire  respect,  untouched  by  corruption,  ad- 
ministering justice  with  even  hand  to  poor  and  rich 
alike.  Our  political  education  has  proceeded  so  rapidly 
that  almost  our  last  vestige  of  respect  for  our  courts 
has  vanished.  We  see  our  judges  as  they  are:  the 
poor  creatures  of  the  predatory  corporations  and  the 
venal  bosses.  Even  those  among  them  who  are  tech- 
nically "honest"  are  constitutionally  and  professionally 
disposed  to  favor  wealth  and  privilege  against  man- 
hood and  equal  rights.  And  when  they  are  disposed 
to  do  justice  they  are  so  bound  hand  and  foot  by 
precedents  and  rules  of  procedure  that  they  are  utterly 
unable  to  see  the  real  equity  of  a  case.1 


II 


The  second  great  abuse  in  the  present  system  of 
"law  and  order"  is  the  power  usurped  by  the  courts  of 

1  President  Taft  said,  in  a  now  famous  speech,  "I  love  courts ; 
I  love  judges.  They  are  my  ideals  on  earth  that  typify  what  we 
shall  meet  in  heaven  under  a  just  God."  We  may  or  may  not 
hope  to  meet  Mr.  Taft  in  such  a  heaven  as  he  conceives,  but 
some  of  us  hope  one  day  to  appear  before  a  very  different  God. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF       LAWLESSNESS  343 

declaring  statutes  unconstitutional.  Let  Chief  Justice 
Clark  be  heard  again:  "The  overwhelming  prepon- 
derance of  the  judiciary  was  unexpectedly  created  in 
1803  by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  without  a  line  of  the  Constitution  to  authorize 
it,  when  that  body  assumed  the  right  to  veto  any  act 
of  Congress  it  chose  to  hold  unconstitutional  .  .  . 
This  doctrine  was  promptly  seized  upon  as  a  boon 
by  the  special  interests  and  by  all  who  believed  at 
heart  in  the  government  of  the  many  for  the  benefit 
of  the  few.  It  has  virtually  made  the  courts  the 
dominant  power  in  every  State  in  the  Union.  When- 
ever any  progressive  statute  has  not  been  in  accord 
with  the  economic  views  entertained  by  the  courts, 
they  have  generally  exercised  their  power  to  declare 
such  statute  unconstitutional,  because  it  was  not  'due 
process  of  law.' ' 

The  Federal  Constitution  gives  to  the  Supreme 
Court  created  under  that  instrument  the  power  to  de- 
clare invalid  any  law  enacted  by  a  State  that  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  national  Constitution  or  the  statutes 
of  Congress  and  treaties.  Such  a  power  it  was  neces- 
sary to  vest  in  the  Federal  court  in  order  to  prevent 
endless  conflict  and  confusion.  But  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution did  not  give  to  the  Supreme  Court  power  to 
invalidate  a  statute  of  Congress,  nor  does  any  State 
Constitution  give  to  its  courts  power  to  invalidate  a 
statute  of  the  legislature.  This  is  power  assumed  by 
the  courts,  another  great  stretch  of  judicial  preroga- 
tive. Inasmuch  as  a  fundamental  principle  of  con- 
stitutions is  that  all  powers  not  conferred  are  reserved 


344  THE   GOSPEL    OF   JESUS 

to  the  people,  the  declaring  of  statutes  unconstitutional 
is  itself  unconstitutional.  It  is  pure  judicial  usurpa- 
tion, and  the  power,  while  sometimes  wisely  exercised, 
is  so  much  more  often  abused  to  frustrate  the  peo- 
ple's will,  that  it  must  be  taken  from  the  courts. 
Judges  have  themselves  raised  the  issue  whether  their 
will  or  the  will  of  the  people  shall  be  the  law  of  the 
land,  and  they  have  no  right  to  complain  if,  in  con- 
sequence, the  people  regard  them  as  enemies. 

When  a  layman  speaks  bold  words  like  these,  the 
conservative  element  among  us  lift  hands  of  holy  hor- 
ror and  exclaim.  But  does  anything  said  above  go 
further  than  these  words  from  the  late  Justice  Har- 
lan,  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court :  "When 
the  American  people  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
judiciary  of  this  land  is  usurping  to  itself  the  func- 
tions of  the  legislative  department  of  the  govern- 
ment we  will  find  trouble.  Ninety  millions  of  people 
— all  sorts  of  people — are  not  going  to  submit  to  the 
usurpation  by  the  judiciary  of  the  functions  of  other 
parts  of  the  government  and  the  power  on  its  part  to 
declare  what  is  the  public  policy  of  the  United 
States."  1 

Whenever  this  question  is  raised  somebody  is  sure 
to  urge  the  importance  of  preserving  an  "independent 
judiciary."  Independent  judges  in  a  democracy?  In- 
dependent of  whom?  If  by  that  is  meant  that  judges 
are  to  be  independent  of  the  people  there  is  an  end  of 

1  Much  more  to  the  same  effect  will  be  found  in  Justice  Har- 
lan's  remarkable  dissenting  opinion  in  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany versus  United  States,  221  U.  S.  Reports. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF       LAWLESSNESS  345 

democracy — in  that  case  we  have  judicial  oligarchy. 
Are  we  willing  to  submit  to  that?  Are  we  ready  to 
be  ruled  by  judges  as  our  ancestors  were  by  kings? 
By  their  strained  interpretations,  which  not  infre- 
quently reverse  the  intended  meaning  of  a  statute,  by 
their  reckless  declarations  that  this  or  that  statute 
which  judges  do  not  approve  is  unconstitutional,  our 
courts  have  finally  landed  us  in  this  ridiculous  situa- 
tion :  Despotic  Russia  and  semi-despotic  Germany  and 
Austria,  together  with  monarchic  Great  Britain  and 
Italy  and  even  Spain,  may  have  liberal  laws  for  the 
righting  of  social  wrongs,  but  democratic  United 
States,  "free  America,"  may  not  have  such  laws.  The 
sacred  bench  forbids.  The  will  of  the  people,  the  de- 
cisions of  their  representatives,  are  not  to  count.  Our 
constitutions  are  no  longer  charts  of  progress;  they 
have  been  made  by  courts  the  shield  of  privilege  and 
social  wrong,  unsurmountable  barriers  to  the  people's 
demand  for  reform.  And  this  is  the  political  system, 
this  is  the  government  that  we  have  boasted  for  these 
generations  to  be  the  most  liberal,  the  most  enlight- 
ened and  the  most  free  in  the  world! 

Behold  and  admire  then,  dearly  beloved,  this  "law 
and  order"  which  we  are  exhorted,  in  the  name  of  lib- 
erty and  the  interests  of  society,  even  in  the  name  of 
morality  and  religion,  to  respect  and  uphold.  It  is 
not  to  be  denied  by  one  who  coolly  surveys  the  whole 
matter  that  our  courts,  judges,  lawyers,  police,  jails, 
prisons — the  whole  system  of  law  and  order — consti- 
tute together  what  deserves  to  be  named  a  system  for 
administration  of  injustice  and  defense  of  oppression. 


346  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

It  becomes  a  fair  question  for  debate  whether  they  do 
not  oftener  prevent  justice  than  promote  justice. 
While  professing  to  secure  liberty,  they  are  doing 
their  utmost  to  destroy  liberty.  No  appeal  to  the  char- 
acter of  individuals  will  affect  this  conviction.  For 
this  is  no  question  between  "good"  judges  and  "bad" 
judges — comparatively  few  of  our  judges  have  been 
"bad."  It  is  a  question  between  enlightened  and  un- 
enlightened judges,  between  men  who  are  in  bondage 
to  precedents  and  outworn  principles  and  men  who  are 
in  sympathy  with  their  own  times  and  share  the  high- 
est ethical  and  social  ideals  of  their  fellows.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  "good  law"  (as  lawyers  understand  that 
phrase)  versus  "bad  law."  The  decisions  that  do  so 
much  wrong  to  the  people  are  nearly  all  "good  law." 
That  is  just  the  trouble;  for  in  these  cases  the  better 
the  law  the  greater  the  injustice.  The  precise  need  is 
that  the  law  be  changed. 

Here  is  where  not  only  the  judiciary,  but  substan- 
tially the  whole  legal  profession,  fails  to  comprehend. 
The  evolution  of  production  from  hand  manufacture 
to  machine,  from  simple  tools  to  complex,  from  the 
little  shop  to  the  great  factory  has  made  a  revolution 
in  the  status  of  the  laborer.  It  has  changed  him  from 
a  condition  of  independence  to  a  condition  of  depend- 
ence, from  freeman  into  wage-slave.  The  old  legal 
maxims  and  rules  no  longer  apply.  But  our  courts 
are  blind  to  this  great  change.  The  highest  court  of 
our  greatest  State  not  long  ago  used  this  language: 
"It  cannot  be  conceived  how  the  cigarmaker  is  to  be 
improved  in  his  health  or  his  morals  by  forcing  him 


THE    PROBLEM    OF      LAWLESSNESS  347 

from  his  home  and  its  hallowed  associations  and  be- 
neficent influences  to  ply  his  trade  elsewhere."  If  the 
learned  judge  who  wrote  this  opinion  knows  anything 
about  a  New  York  tenement  his  words  are  nauseous 
cant;  if  not,  he  displays  ignorance  of  commonest  so- 
cial facts  for  which  a  child  ought  to  blush. 

This  is  the  sin  of  our  judges,  that  they  have  failed 
to  understand  their  own  social  order.  They  have 
not  yet  discovered  that  the  old  saws  of  Coke  and 
Blackstone  no  longer  fit  modern  facts.  They  are  en- 
gaged in  applying  a  collection  of  legal  precedents,  ac- 
cumulated through  the  experience  of  a  society  that  has 
passed  away,  to  a  society  with  unprecedented  condi- 
tions. They  have  gained  no  glimpse  of  the  fact  that 
there  has  been  a  greater  change  in  economic  and  social 
conditions  in  the  last  hundred  years  than  in  any  thou- 
sand years  of  the  world's  previous  history — that  there 
is  more  change  now  in  every  decade  than  in  any  cen- 
tury previous  to  the  eighteenth.  Laws  and  institutions 
of  a  century  ago,  not  to  say  several  centuries  old,  are 
no  more  applicable  to  the  world  in  which  we  are  liv- 
ing than  to  the  planet  Mars.  The  law  must  bend  to 
the  new  conditions  or  it  must  break. 

Again,  lest  this  be  thought  the  extravagance  of  an 
uninstructed  layman,  let  us  hear  from  one  of  the  fore- 
most lawyers  of  the  United  States,  Frederic  R.  Cou- 
dert,  of  New  York  :  "In  this  last  generation  economic 
changes  have  so  modified  actual  human  relations  that 
the  American  law  of  to-day  reflects  the  views  of  the 
dead  rather  than  of  the  living,  and  is  in  many  re- 


348  THE   GOSPEL   OF    JESUS 

spects  far  behind  that  of  England,  France  or  Ger- 
many." x 

Nor  is  it  any  reply  to  Mr.  Coudert's  tremendous 
indictment  to  say  that  our  judges  are  honest,  if  mis- 
taken. It  is  true  that  capitalism  does  not  bribe  judges 
— as  a  rule;  the  Archbald  case  proved  that  it  some- 
times does — not  because  it  is  too  virtuous,  however, 
but  because  it  has  no  need.  The  interests  of  the  legal 
profession  are  mainly  with  capitalism;  lawyers  would 
starve  if  they  depended  on  the  poor  for  a  living;  and 
from  the  ranks  of  men  so  biased  by  economic  interest 
and  lifelong  habit  judges  must  perforce  be  selected. 
Men  elected  or  appointed  to  judicial  positions  are  al- 
most wholly  lawyers  whose  practice  has  been  as  coun- 
sel of  -corporations  and  other  "malefactors  of  great 
wealth,"  and  whose  experiences,  sympathies  and  whole 
view  of  law  and  of  life  are  on  the  side  of  the  capital- 
ist. Why  waste  money  in  bribery  of  one  who  is  al- 
ready the  creature  of  capitalism,  devoted  to  its  inter- 
ests, thinking  only  its  thoughts?  The  little  brothers 
of  the  rich  may  be  confidently  trusted  to  decide  all 
questions  "right." 

Ill 

Possibly  the  deepest  grievance  against  "law  and 
order"  cherished  by  the  working  class  is  the  convic- 
tion that  the  system  is  so  unfairly  administered.  Even 
with  all  its  defects,  it  might  be  borne  with  more  pa- 
tience, if  there  was  one  law  for  all.  But  the  small 

1  "Certainty  and  Justice,"  p.  305. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF       LAWLESSNESS  349 

thief  is  sent  to  jail;  the  big  thief  is  sent  to  Congress. 
Before  a  judge,  afterwards  impeached  for  corruption, 
two  smugglers  were  brought  on  the  same  day.  One 
was  a  poor  Greek,  consumptive,  without  friends,  who 
had  committed  a  slight  technical  offense,  and  he  was 
sent  to  prison  for  long  months.  Another  was  a  rich 
merchant,  who  had  been  systematically  defrauding 
the  government  for  years,  to  the  amount  of  at  least 
a  million  dollars,  and  perhaps  many  times  that ;  he 
was  let  off  with  a  fine  of  $25,000,  notwithstanding  the 
district  attorney  pressed  for  a  jail  sentence  as  the 
only  effective  penalty.  And  these  two  cases  are  typi- 
cal of  the  everyday  working  of  the  whole  system: 
one  law  for  the  rich,  another  for  the  poor ;  a  maximum 
of  protection  for  property,  a  minimum  of  protection 
for  the  person. 

The  virtuous  denunciations  of  the  McNamaras  and 
other  criminals  of  the  working  class,  with  which  press 
and  pulpit  ring  from  time  to  time,  are  more  loud  than 
convincing.  Our  ethical  instructors  presume  on  the 
short  memory  of  the  public.  But  some  have  not  for- 
gotten that,  not  so  many  years  ago,  the  heads  of  the 
Standard  Oil  Trust  were  indicted  and  tried  for  the 
crime  of  conspiring  to  blow  up  a  rival  refinery.  It 
was  lawless  destruction  of  property  quite  as  flagrant 
as  anything  of  which  the  McNamaras  were  guilty. 
But  there  was  this  significant  difference  between  the 
two  cases:  the  millionaires  were  not  convicted.  No 
Detective  Burns  was  employed  by  the  State  to  pro- 
cure evidence  against  them.  More  recently,  the  head 
of  the  Woolen  Trust  was  indicted  and  tried  for  con- 


35°  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

spiracy  to  plant  dynamite  in  Lawrence,  Massachusetts, 
in  order  to  discredit  the  striking  employees  of  his 
mills.  No  evidence  was  found  in  either  case  directly 
to  connect  the  eminently  respectable  men  at  the  head 
of  these  trusts  with  a  disgraceful  crime.  We  should 
be  foolish  to  expect  such  evidence.  Men  like  these 
are  wise  in  their  day  and  generation.  They  call  their 
henchmen,  put  a  large  sum  of  money  into  their  hands, 
and  say  something  like  this:  "You  need  not  account 
for  this  money;  don't  tell  me  what  you  do — I  don't 
want  to  know — but  get  results."  And  the  law  holds 
them  guiltless,  since  the  law  is  not  made  for  the 
Rockefellers  and  Woods,  but  is  made  by  the  Rocke- 
fellers and  Woods  for  the  McNamaras. 

A  leader  of  public  opinion  and  a  professed  teacher 
of  Christian  ethics,  the  Outlook,  approves  the  ac- 
quittal of  Wood,  on  the  ground  that  paying  out  a 
large  sum  of  money  not  to  be  accounted  for  is  a  very 
different  thing  from  a  criminal  conspiracy.  This  is 
probably  law,  but  it  is  not  sense  or  justice.  On  the 
contrary,  if  law  is  to  correspond  with  equity,  it  must 
be  held  that  such  an  act  is  the  very  essence  of  the 
conspiracy,  to  which  the  money  is  indispensable. 
While  statutes,  courts  and  Christian  moralists  take 
their  present  view  of  the  matter,  the  chief  offender  in 
a  criminal  conspiracy,  the  man  who  makes  criminal 
outrages  possible  by  financing  them — the  man  who 
hires  crimes  to  be  committed,  to  speak  without  dis- 
guise— will  escape  legal  responsibility  and  almost  all 
public  contumely,  provided  he  takes  pains  to  keep 
himself  ignorant  of  the  details.  So  long  as  such 


THE    PROBLEM    OF      LAWLESSNESS  35! 

ethics  are  taught  by  Christian  teachers  of  high  stand- 
ing, so  long  will  Christianity  be  a  scoff  and  a  mock 
on  the  lips  of  the  workers.  And  deservedly  so,  for 
such  teachers  have  turned  their  backs  on  the  Master 
who  commanded  his  followers  to  "judge  righteous 
judgment." 

Why  do  Christian  teachers  vie  with  the  hirelings 
of  the  kept  press  in  defending  capitalist  ethics?  Be- 
cause they  are  themselves  beneficiaries'  of  capitalism 
and  biased  in  its  favor.1  Whether  the  bias  is  con- 
scious or  unconscious  it  is  not  necessary  to  consider; 
the  effect  is  that  they  become  partners  in  all  forms 
of  social  guilt.  Every  dividend  paid  by  an  Ameri- 
can railway  represents  swindling  and  manslaughter: 
every  dollar  reeks  with  fraud  and  drips  with  blood. 
Every  dividend  paid  by  the  Steel  Trust  is  the  product 
of  theft  and  the  price  of  human  lives.  In  less  degree 
this  is  true  of  all  the  profits  of  industrialism.  When 
a  preacher,  an  editor,  a  president  of  a  university, 
whose  pockets  bulge  with  money  so  gained,  shrieks 
about  the  crimes  committed  by  workingmen  and  deals 
out  high  moral  advice  concerning  the  preservation  of 
law  and  order — that  is,  the  maintenance  of  the  pres- 
ent system  of  rascality  and  murder — he  affords  a 
sight  to  provoke  men  to  laughter  and  angels  to  tears. 

1  The  assertion  that  the  press  and  the  university  and  the  Church 
are  subsidized  and  controlled  by  Capitalism  is  sometimes  denied 
and  oftener  doubted.  But  Mr.  Mellen  testified  that  the  New 
Haven  Railway  employed  Professor  Bruce  Wyman,  of  Harvard, 
at  $10,000  a  year  to  deliver  lectures  in  the  interest  of  his  road; 
and  admitted  that  a  thousand  New  England  newspapers  were 
practically  in  its  pay  through  a  "campaign  for  publicity." 


352  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

It  must  be  apparent  to  the  most  careless  observer 
that  the  mass  of  American  people  are  fast  losing  con- 
fidence in  their  laws,  their  leaders  and  their  govern- 
ment. Is  there  any  other  cause  for  this  than  their 
perception  that  the  laws  are  unjust  and  oppressive, 
their  leaders  insincere  and  rascally  and  the  govern- 
ment weak  and  ineffective  for  good,  though  all  too 
effective  for  evil?  But  there  is  still  another  serious 
complaint  against  the  law :  it  fails  to  secure  justice 
between  man  and  man.  It  is  not  true,  as  some  say, 
that  the  poor  man  can  no  longer  obtain  justice ;  often 
he  can  and  does;  his  grievance  is  that  he  has  no  cer- 
tainty of  getting  justice.  The  chances  are  at  least  a 
hundred  to  one  against  him.  Nearly  every  State  in 
the  Union  has  in  its  fundamental  law  an  assertion  of 
equal  rights  for  all  citizens:  that  every  man  is  en- 
titled to  equal  protection  of  person  and  property,  to 
equal  redress  of  injuries  through  legal  process,  "jus- 
tice equally  and  without  denial,  promptly  and  with- 
out delay."  Beautiful  sentiments!  But  the  facts? 

Suppose  a  rich  man  wrongs  a  poor  man;  suppose 
the  employee  of  a  great  corporation  is  wronged ;  what 
is  his  chance  of  redress?  Poor  men  do  win  verdicts 
in  such  cases — sometimes — but  usually  only  to  have 
them  set  aside  on  appeal  again  and  again,  until,  if 
they  finally  win,  the  costs  eat  up  the  verdict  and  the 
net  result  is  denial  of  redress.  A  poor  Irish  workman 
lost  his  sight  by  a  delayed  explosion  in  a  stone  quarry. 
This  happened  in  1897 ;  and  in  1900  a  jury  gave  him 
a  verdict  of  $20,000  which  the  higher  court  set  aside. 
The  case  dragged  on,  and  in  1913  a  jury  again  found 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS"  353 

a  verdict  of  $10,000,  and  at  last  accounts  the  case 
was  still  dragging  along.  The  court  records  are  full 
of  cases  like  this.  Law  and  order  means  that  every 
disadvantage  and  obstacle  will  be  thrown  in  the  way 
of  the  poor  man,  if  he  asks  for  justice,  and  that  every 
advantage  and  assistance  will  be  given  to  his  adver- 
sary, the  rich  man  or  rich  corporation.  This  has  be- 
come so  notorious  a  fact  that  even  President  Taft 
acknowledged  it,  in  an  address  delivered  at  Chicago, 
September  16,  1909 :  "We  must  make  it  so  that  the 
poor  man  will  have  as  nearly  as  possible  an  equal  op- 
portunity in  litigating  with  the  rich  man;  and  under 
present  conditions,  ashamed  as  we  may  be  of  it,  this 
is  not  the  fact." 

Mr.  Frederick  W.  Taylor,  in  an  examination  as 
witness  before  the  Industrial  Relations  Commission  at 
Washington  (April,  1914)  maintained  that,  as  be- 
tween employer  and  employee,  "in  999  times  out  of 
1,000  justice  is  done.  If  it  were  not  so  this  would  be 
a  horrible  world  to  live  in."  But  the  number  daily  in- 
creases of  those  who  believe  the  fact  to  be  that  barely 
once  in  a  thousand  times  is  justice  done  and  that  con- 
sequently this  is  a  horrible  world  to  live  in. 


IV 

In  the  struggle  between  capital  and  labor  the  courts 
have  upheld  capital  with  a  uniformity  that  becomes 
monotonous  when  one  examines  the  record.  In  doing 
this,  judges  have  often  cast  consistency  and  reason 


354  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

to  the  winds.  For  example,  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  has  declared  the  blacklist  legal  and 
the  boycott  illegal,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they 
are  essentially  the  same.  For  when  the  workers  de- 
clare a  boycott,  they  blacklist  employers;  and  when 
employers  blacklist  employees  they  declare  a  boycott 
on  labor.  But  when  it  comes  to  "law  and  order," 
sauce  for  goose  is  not  sauce  for  gander.  In  the  case 
of  Boyer  versus  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company, 
the  court  held :  "An  employer  having  discharged  em- 
ployees belonging  to  a  labor  union  has  the  right  to 
keep  a  book  containing  their  names,  and  showing  the 
reason  of  their  discharge,  and  to  invite  inspection 
thereof  by  other  employers,  even  though  the  latter 
therefore  refuse  to  hire  the  discharged  employees." 
But  in  the  case  of  Gompers,  Mitchell  and  Morrison 
versus  Bucks  Stove  and  Range  Company,  the  court 
held  that  it  was  an  unlawful  conspiracy  for  workers 
to  print  in  their  papers  such  statements  as  "unfair"  or 
"we  don't  patronize,"  because  these  were  verbal  acts 
against  property.1 

The  law  of  this  "free"  country,  therefore,  is  that 
employers  may  make  it  impossible  for  a  man  to  sell 
his  labor  anywhere,  and  so  turn  him  into  a  pauper 
or  a  tramp,  but  if  he  and  his  fellow  workers  attempt 
to  prevent  employers  from  selling  their  product  such 
workers  become  criminals.  When  the  employers  do 
a  thing,  it  is  "combination"  and  legal ;  when  employees 

1  The  courts  of  twenty- five  States  have  also  decided  that  th° 
boycott  is  illegal.  Laidler,  "Boycotts  and  the  Labor  Problem," 
p.  236. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS"  355 

do  precisely  the  same  thing,  it  is  "conspiracy"  and  a 
crime.  And  this  is  no  abstract  question  of  law;  for 
under  this  decision  Gompers  and  Mitchell  and  Mor- 
rison have  been  sentenced  to  nine  months'  imprison- 
ment and  a  heavy  fine.  A  higher  court  may  relieve 
them  from  this  sentence  on  appeal,  but  it  is  an  in- 
effaceable stigma  on  "law  and  order"  that  it  should 
ever  have  been  imposed.1  Under  the  same  decision  a 
jury  has  rendered  a  verdict  of  $80,000  against  the 
hat-makers  of  Danbury,  Connecticut,  which  under  the 
Sherman  act  must  be  multiplied  by  three,  and  with 
added  costs  amounts  to  a  quarter  million  dollars'  pen- 
alty assessed  on  these  working  men  for  doing  what 
the  plaintiff  in  the  suit,  the  manufacturing  hatters, 
might  do  with  the  full  approval  of  the  court.2  Is 
anybody,  not  hopelessly  biased  by  his  economic  inter- 
ests, so  lost  to  all  sense  of  fairness  and  decency  as  to 
call  this  justice? 

And  the  injustice  of  these  blowing-hot-and-cold 
decisions  becomes  harder  to  bear  when  we  consider 
how  this  came  to  be  law :  it  is  the  result  of  a  forced 
construction  by  the  courts  of  the  Sherman  act.  Now, 
the  Sherman  act,  as  everybody  knows,  was  passed  by 

1  In  June,  1914,  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  reversed  this 
decision  of  the  lower  court  on  a  technicality  (holding  that  the 
statute  of  limitations  invalidated  the  sentence)  without  express- 
ing any  opinion  on  the  merits  of  the  case.  It  is  still  uncertain, 
therefore,  whether  these  men  would  have  been  lawfully  convicted 
had  action  been  taken  sooner. 

*On  December  18,  1913,  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  of 
Appeals  affirmed  the  verdict  given  in  the  District  Court  of  Con- 
necticut, October  n,  1912.  The  case  has,  of  course,  been  ap- 
pealed to  the  Supreme  Court. 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Congress  in  obedience  to  an  imperative  popular  de- 
mand that  something  be  done  to  limit  corporate  power. 
It  was  the  first  of  those  measures  designed  to  "bust 
the  Trusts."  Under  it  numerous  suits  and  prosecu- 
tions have  been  begun,  and  some  have  been  ended, 
against  great  corporations,  all  of  which  have. failed 
to  produce  any  result  worth  mentioning.  The  last 
tooth  of  the  Sherman  act,  as  regards  the  Trusts,  was 
pulled  by  the  Supreme  Court  when  it  read  into  the 
statute  the  word  "reasonable,"  l  which  Congress  had 
refused  to  insert  by  amendment, — a  thing  that  Presi- 
dent Taft  had  said  in  a  message  the  court  had  no 
right  to  do,  and  which  the  court  in  a  previous  de- 
cision had  itself  declared  would  be  an  assumption  on 
its  part  of  legislative  powers.  Nevertheless,  it  cheer- 
fully assumed  these  powers,  and  so  amended  the  Sher- 
man act  as  to  make  it  quite  innocuous  to  Trusts.  But 
the  same  court  supplied  the  act  with  a  full  set  of 
teeth  as  regards  workingmen,  who  were  never  in  the 
minds  of  the  lawmakers  when  they  enacted  the  statute. 
Under  pretext  that  the  proceedings  of  labor  organiza- 
tions affect  inter-State  commerce,  they  have  been 
brought  under  jurisdiction  of  this  act,  and  on  this 
strained  and  far-fetched  interpretation  the  boycott 

1The  Supreme  Court  followed  up  its  doctrine  of  "reasonable" 
restraint  of  trade,  with  a  twin  doctrine  of  reasonable  adultera- 
tion, in  interpreting  the  pure  food  law.  It  held  that  it  is  not 
unlawful  to  use  poisonous  substances  in  preparing  food,  and 
even  to  leave  them  in  the  food,  unless  it  can  be  proved  that 
poison  is  present  in  sufficient  quantities  to  endanger  health. 
Thus,  instead  of  putting  on  the  manufacturer  the  burden  of 
proving  that  his  food  is  good,  on  the  public  is  thrown  the  bur- 
den of  proving  it  to  be  bad. 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS"  357 

has  been  condemned  in  the  Federal  courts  and  is  pun- 
ishable under  contempt  proceedings.  This  is  a  fair 
instance  of  the  ways  numberless  in  which  the  courts 
are  to-day  encroaching  on  our  liberties.  Laws  in- 
tended for  protection  of  the  people  are  turned  by 
courts  into  laws  for  oppression  of  the  people.  And  in 
the  sacred  name  of  "law  and  order"  we  are  bidden 
tamely  to  submit  or  be  regarded  as  enemies  of  so- 
ciety. 

But  it  is  not  the  courts  alone  that  we  have  to  con- 
sider in  this  matter;  it  is  the  whole  auxiliary  machin- 
ery of  "law  and  order."  How  is  this  machinery  used  ? 
In  any  even-handed  way  between  rich  and  poor,  be- 
tween workers  and  employers?  It  is  used  exactly  as 
courts  are  used,  uniformly  to  uphold  the  interests  of 
capitalism.  There  is  no  variation  in  the  facts,  in 
whatever  community  there  may  be  controversy  be- 
tween employers  and  employed.  The  police  are  in- 
variably employed  in  the  interest  of  employers,  nomi- 
nally to  preserve  law  and  order,  really  to  break  the 
strike.  Invariably?  No,  there  has  been  a  single  re- 
corded exception.  The  mayor  of  Indianapolis,  in  1913, 
refused  to  permit  use  of  the  police  of  that  city  in 
this  manner,  but  he  was  speedily  forced  to  resign,  and 
under  his  successor  the  good  old  game  of  skull-crack- 
ing and  wanton  arrests  went  merrily  on.  Everywhere 
the  official  preservers  of  law  and  order  are  guilty  of 
brutal  violence,  make  unlawful  arrests,  and  in  other 
ways  demonstrate  their  ability  to  bring  forth  from 
labor  troubles  a  sanguinary  peace. 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

They  are  invariably  supported  in  their  proceedings 
by  the  approval  of  our  "best  citizens,"  that  is,  mem- 
bers of  the  capitalistic  class  who  wish  the  revolt  of 
wage-slaves  against  the  system  that  oppresses  them 
to  be  subdued  at  any  sacrifice.  Not  infrequently,  in- 
deed generally,  the  pulpit  is  also  loud  in  approval  of 
the  police  and  in  disapproval  of  the  strikers.  And  in 
times  of  industrial  peace,  ministers  who  thus  range 
themselves  against  the  workers  are  often  heard  to  won- 
der why  the  American  workingman  has  lost  his  in- 
terest in  religion  and  can  no  longer  be  induced  to 
come  to  church. 

Law  and  order  must  be  judged  by  their  fruits.  So 
judged,  the  conclusion  is  unavoidable  that  they  are 
intended  to  keep  down  the  lower  classes,  not  to  re- 
strain the  higher,  who  by  their  conduct  declare  that 
they  hold  themselves  to  be  above  law.  Respect  such 
law  and  order?  Who  can,  except  those  whose  inter- 
ests it  promotes  and  is  intended  to  promote?  Until 
such  things  as  we  have  been  considering  cease  to  be, 
until  law  is  so  reformed  and  its  administration  so 
improved  that  they  cannot  be,  it  will  remain  true  that 
in  this  country  of  theoretical  equal  rights  there  is  one 
law  for  the  rich  and  another  for  the  poor.  This  is 
not,  as  we  teach  our  children  to  sing,  "the  land  of  the 
free  and  the  home  of  the  brave,"  but  the  land  of  the 
rich  and  the  home  of  the  slave.  We  must  insist  on 
one  law  for  all,  or  we  shall  soon  have  law  for  none. 
If  there  is  not  reform,  and  that  right  speedily,  there 
will  be  revolution. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF      LAWLESSNESS  359 


Greatest  grievance  of  all  is  the  fact  that,  whenever 
the  system  they  have  themselves  established  fails  at 
any  point  to  achieve  its  purpose  of  protecting  the 
present  social  order,  the  beneficiaries  and  representa- 
tives of  that  order  never  hesitate  to  violate  their  own 
system  and  fall  back  on  pure  brute  force  without 
color  of  law.  They  are  like  a  gambler  who  insists 
on  playing  with  loaded  dice,  and  when,  in  spite  of 
that  advantage,  he  sees  himself  about  to  lose,  sweeps 
all  the  stakes  from  the  table  and  pockets  them,  and 
draws  his  pistol  on  any  player  who  objects. 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  professes  to  be  the  friend 
of  the  poor  laborer,  said  in  a  Decoration  Day  speech, 
in  1911,  that  he  was  hated  because  men  knew  that  he 
wouldn't  let  the  Constitution  stand  in  the  way  of  pun- 
ishing them  if  they  did  wrong.  Let  that  sink  into 
your  consciousness,  reader:  when  Mr.  Roosevelt  de- 
cides— and  of  course  his  decision  is  infallible  and  irre- 
formable — that  certain  men  deserve  to  be  punished, 
he  will  not  let  a  little  obstacle  like  the  Constitution 
stand  in  his  way.  The  importance  of  this  declaration 
consists  mainly  in  the  fact  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  the 
enfant  terrible  of  American  politics;  he  has  blurted 
out  what  the  entire  capitalistic  class  thinks  and  does. 
The  history  of  the  past  few  years  is  full  of  instances 
in  which  those  who  held  in  their  hands  power  to  pun- 
ish have  not  let  the  Constitution  stand  in  their  way. 
And  thus  far  the  men  who  have  power  are  represen- 


360  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

tatives  of  the  capitalistic  order,  and  they  have  pun- 
ished men  who  were  misguided  enough,  criminal 
enough  (from  their  point  of  view)  to  challenge  that 
order  and  oppose  it.  One  sometimes  wonders  if  they 
ever  think,  and,  if  they  do,  whether  it  never  occurs 
to  them  that  they  are  furnishing  terrible  precedents 
for  revolutionaries?  For  the  only  party  that  has 
much  to  lose  by  the  subversion  of  law  and  order  is 
the  capitalistic.  The  workers,  as  Marx  and  Engels 
long  ago  reminded  them,  have  nothing  to  lose  but  their 
chains. 

A  few  recent  cases,  in  which  the  dominant  order 
has  shown  its  contempt  for  law,  will  better  enable  us 
to  comprehend  the  principles  and  procedure  of  capital- 
ism. One  case  was  the  strike  of  the  workers  in  the 
woolen  mills  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  the  main 
facts  of  which  the  subsidized  press  did  not  succeed 
entirely  in  suppressing — thanks,  not  to  the  press,  but 
to  a  Congressional  investigation.  People  have  not  yet 
had  time  to  forget  the  brutality  of  police  and  militia 
during  that  strike.  They  have  not  forgotten  how  a 
chief  of  police  overrode  all  laws,  and  even  all  constitu- 
tional guarantees,  and  prevented  parents  from  sending 
their  starving  children  where  they  might  be  fed.  And 
probably  they  have  not  forgotten  the  burst  of  indig- 
nation from  the  whole  country,  nor  the  haste  with 
which  that  particular  injustice  was  revoked.  Nor  will 
people  soon  forget  the  attempt  to  fasten  the  crime  of 
constructive  murder  upon  two  of  the  leaders  of  the 
strike,  Ettor  and  Giovanetti,  and  the  keeping  them  in 
jail  eight  months  without  bail,  when  their  only  real 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS"  361 

offense,  as  every  intelligent  citizen  in  the  United 
States  knew,  was  that  they  had  led  a  successful  strike, 
which  made  known  to  the  whole  nation  the  practical 
operation  of  "Schedule  K,"  and  the  conditions  under 
which  a  great  body  of  workingmen  were  compelled 
to  labor  and  live.  Because  a  woman  was  killed  during 
the  street  disturbances  (as  many  still  believe,  by  a 
policeman),  these  men  were  to  be  sent  to  the  electric 
chair,  if  the  beneficiaries  of  Schedule  K  could  compass 
it.  But  during  the  same  troubles  one  of  the  brave 
militia  who  had  been  called  in  to  preserve  "law  and 
order"  bayoneted  a  young  boy  in  the  back,  inflicting 
a  wound  from  which  he  died,  and  no  attempt  was 
ever  made  to  hold  anybody  responsible  for  that  cow- 
ardly murder. 

A  second  case  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  conti- 
nent, in  San  Diego,  California.  Some  of  the  so- 
called  best  citizens  of  that  town  organized  a  band 
of  vigilantes,  who  patrolled  the  streets  under  arms, 
and  seized  and  beat  and  drove  from  town  every  man 
suspected  of  connection  with  the  Industrial  Workers 
of  the  World.  One  would  naturally  suppose  that  the 
members  of  this  organization  had  been  guilty  of  some 
great  outrage  to  provoke  such  action — that  they  had 
blown  up  some  building  and  killed  its  inmates,  per- 
haps. Nothing  of  the  kind :  their  only  offense  was 
that  they  had  been  conducting  a  vigorous  and  suc- 
cessful propaganda,  by  holding  meetings  on  the  street 
corners,  and  insisted  on  exercising  their  rights  as 
American  citizens  to  free  assembly  and  free  speech. 
The  citizens  determined  to  crush  out  the  society.  In 


362  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

doing  this  they  were  guilty  of  outrages  that  would 
put  an  Apache  Indian  to  the  blush.  One  victim  was 
covered  with  hot  tar,  rolled  in  the  sand,  and  then  the 
vigilantes  branded  his  back  with  the  letters  I.  W.  W., 
using  for  the  purpose  the  tips  of  their  lighted  cigars. 
A  man  was  arrested  and  beaten  nearly  to  death  for 
the  heinous  crime  of  wearing  a  red  necktie.  One  man 
was  arrested  for  reading  the  Bible  aloud,  and  another 
for  reading  the  Declaration  of  Independence.1  One 
can  understand  these  two  arrests :  The  very  mention 
of  the  Bible  and  the  Declaration  in  such  a  place  as 
San  Diego  had  become  would  be  such  condemnation 
of  the  town  as  could  not  be  tolerated  by  any  self- 
respecting  vigilantes  or  police.  They  even  turned  the 
fire  hose  on  citizens  engaged  in  peaceful  religious 
meetings ! 

A  third  case  came  from  Louisiana,  where  the  Lum- 
ber Trust  for  weeks  waged  civil  war,  not  only  against 
their  striking  employees,  but  the  people  at  large.  All 
pretense  of  lawful  government  was  abandoned  in  sev- 
eral counties;  troops  and  armed  mercenaries  marched 
and  countermarched  through  the  towns  and  country 
roads,  shooting  and  marauding  at  their  pleasure. 
Men  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  daily,  without  war- 

1  Over  300  persons  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  during  this 
reign  of  terror  at  San  Diego,  989  were  assaulted  and  beaten,  two 
were  killed  outright,  and  55  were  illegally  exiled.  And-  our  sub- 
sidized newspapers  told  their  readers  almost  nothing  about  this. 
Several  of  the  persons  arrested  were  convicted  of  alleged  of- 
fenses, but  the  proceedings  were  so  disgracefully  unjust  that 
Governor  Johnson  promptly  pardoned  them.  Most  of  the  per- 
sons arrested  were  set  at  liberty  without  trial,  or  even  any 
formal  charge  against  them. 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   "LAWLESSNESS"  363 

rant,  bail  or  counsel.  And,  after  these  minions  of  the 
Trust  had  killed  several  members  of  the  brotherhood 
of  timber  workers,  forty  other  members  were  lodged 
in  jail  on  the  charge  of  having  caused  the  death  of 
their  fellows.  It  is  indeed  a  pity  that  the  power  of 
Trusts  ends  with  the  grave,  otherwise  the  shades  of 
the  men  whom  they  had  done  to  death  would  doubt- 
less have  been  arrested  and  charged  with  their  own 
murder ! 

The  annals  of  Stuart  tyranny  will  be  searched  in 
vain  for  a  parallel  to  what  the  capitalistic  order  did 
in  the  strike  of  the  coal  miners  of  West  Virginia. 
The  owners  of  the  mines  were  also  owners  of  the 
houses  in  which  the  miners  lived.  The  striking  min- 
ers were  evicted  from  their  houses  and  compelled  to 
live  during  the  rigors  of  winter  in  tents  and  huts  on 
the  hillsides.  Having  been  unable,  even  with  the  aid 
of  the  powers  of  nature,  to  subdue  these  men  and 
force  them  to  return  to  work  without  redress  of  griev- 
ances, the  owners  prevailed  on  the  governor  to  de- 
clare martial  law,  under  the  pretext  that  the  strike 
was  an  "insurrection"  under  the  meaning  of  the  law 
— a  palpable  lie  from  which  neither  the  capitalists  nor 
their  tools  in  office  shrank  for  a  moment.  The  Labor 
Argus,  a  newspaper  of  Charleston,  criticized  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  courts  and  militia  for  their  methods. 
Governor  Hatfield  ordered  the  paper  suppressed,  and 
its  plant  was  confiscated  and  its  editors  imprisoned. 
The  governor  had  the  assurance  to  announce  that  he 
did  this  in  the  interest  of  "law  and  order."  This  sub- 
limity of  impudence  holds  the  record  for  the  pres- 


364  THE   GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

ent,  and  so  far  surpasses  any  previous  achievement 
that  it  is  almost  worthy  of  admiration. 

Miners  were  arrested  on  various  charges,  tried  by 
courts  martial,  with  such  rights  to  calling  of  witnesses 
and  counsel  as  it  pleased  the  court  to  give  them,  and 
without  verdict  of  jury.  Among  those  arrested  was 
"Mother"  Jones,  a  woman  over  eighty  years  of  age, 
whose  services  to  miners  have  gained  her  a  national 
repute.  She  and  others  obtained  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  and  were  brought  before  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State.  February  28,  1913,  that  court  rendered 
its  decision,  through  presiding  Judge  Poffenberger,  in 
these  words :  "We  think  that,  inasmuch  as  the  statute 
says  the  Governor  may  arrest  and  detain  certain  per- 
sons who  are  aiding  and  abetting  insurrection  until 
the  insurrection  is  suppressed  and  order  restored,  it 
authorizes  him  to  do  so  in  such  cases  as  this,  and 
there  is  not  a  violation  of  the  constitutional  provis- 
ion against  the  preservation  [deprivation?]  of  life, 
liberty  and  property  without  due  process  of  law." 

The  language  of  the  learned  judge  is  somewhat 
incoherent,  as  is  not  infrequently  the  case  in  judicial 
opinions;  but  one  gathers  without  difficulty  that  "due 
process  of  law,"  which  has  done  so  much  to  preserve 
property  from  interference,  is  but  a  barrier  of  straw 
against  invasion  of  liberty  and  life.  Against  the 
greed  of  employers  it  interposes  no  obstacle,  but  when 
an  eight  hour  day  for  women  or  some  other  measure 
for  the  benefit  of  workers  is  in  question,  it  becomes  a 
wall  of  adamant. 

If  it  were  possible  to  outdo  these  proceedings  in 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   "LAWLESSNESS"  365 

West  Virginia,  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  is  entitled  to 
that  honor.  The  strike  of  the  silk  workers  there  in 
the  spring  of  1913  was  the  signal  for  the  suspension 
of  all  statutes  and  constitutions  by  Chief  of  Police 
Bimson  and  the  local  courts.  Among  the  hundreds 
of  illegal  acts,  the  arrest  of  Messrs.  Hayward,  Lessig 
and  Tresca,  the  three  most  prominent  leaders  of  the 
workers,  is  preeminent.  They  were  charged  with  un- 
lawful assemb1age  and  sentenced  to  six  months  in 
jail  by  Recorder  Carroll.  The  following  November 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  set  aside  the  convic- 
tion, in  an  opinion  of  Chief  Justice  Bergen,  in  which 
he  severely  scored  the  court  below,  declaring  that  the 
record  contained  not  one  particle  of  testimony  war- 
ranting the  conviction. 

But  the  general  sentiment  in  Paterson  was  that 
"the  I.  W.  W.  must  go,"  and  with  this  the  "best  citi- 
zens" and  the  clergy  entirely  sympathized.  Not  one 
voice  was  raised  in  pulpit  or  press  against  these  arbi- 
trary and  illegal  and  brutal  proceedings.  The  Indus- 
trial Workers  of  the  World  were  charged  with  being 
an  anarchistic  organization,  practicers  of  violence  and 
lawlessness :  therefore  to  suppress  them  by  anarchy, 
violence  and  lawlessness  was  quite  proper.  Probably 
the  clergy  of  Paterson  are  now  wondering  why  the 
workers  hate  ministers  and  will  not  come  to  church. 

Patrick  Quinlan,  a  labor  leader  not  a  citizen  of 
Paterson,  was  convicted  and  received  a  jail  sentence 
for  addressing  a  meeting  that  he  did  not  attend  and 
for  saying  words  that  he  never  uttered.  This  added 
a  touch  of  opera  bouffe  to  otherwise  somber  doings. 


366  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Released  on  bail,  he  was  again  arrested  and  con- 
victed for  making  a  remark  derogatory  to  the  chief 
of  police.  Those  not  afraid  to  speak  evil  of  dignities 
fared  badly  in  Paterson  in  those  days.  Time  and 
space  would  fail  to  tell  of  the  brutal  clubbings,  the 
wanton  arrests,  the  interference  with  meetings,  that 
marked  the  course  of  the  strike.  Against  law  ?  Bim- 
son  was  the  law. 

If  we  were  dependent  for  knowledge  of  these  facts 
on  newspaper  reports,  we  might  well  refuse  them 
credence;  but  they  have  been  abundantly  established 
by  testimony  in  a  semi- judicial  inquiry,  conducted  by 
the  Federal  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations.  The 
editor  of  the  leading  Paterson  newspaper  admitted  the 
writing  of  editorials  during  the  strike  in  which  he 
advocated  the  driving  of  the  Industrial  Workers  of 
the  World  out  of  Paterson,  by  violence  if  necessary. 
"Business  men"  of  high  standing,  after  the  passions 
aroused  by  the  strike  had  had  a  year  to  subside,  testi- 
fied that  they  believed  the  I.  W.  W.  to  be  "not  for 
the  good  of  the  community,"  and  that  it  was  there- 
fore the  duty  of  the  police  to  drive  them  out  of  the 
city.  They  admitted  that  this  would  be  "technically 
illegal,"  that  it  would  be  a  violation  of  his  oath  for  a 
policeman  to  take  such  action;  but  that  the  officer 
would  be  justified  in  violating  law  and  oath,  "if  there- 
by he  could  serve  the  interests  of  the  community," 
that  is,  the  interests  of  employers  and  "business  men." 
Since  that  is  the  idea  of  "law  and  order"  that  is  held 
by  prominent  citizens  of  Paterson,  nobody  should  be 
surprised  by  what  occurred  there.  But  when  the  Me- 


THE   PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS"  367 

Namaras  violate  law,  what  a  commotion  these  same 
"business  men"  then  make! 

Having  suppressed,  at  least  temporarily,  free  assem- 
blage and  free  speech,  the  authorities  of  Paterson  re- 
solved also  to  suppress  freedom  of  the  press.  Alex- 
ander Scott  edited  and  published  a  socialistic  paper 
called  the  Weekly  Issue,  at  Passaic,  several  miles  from 
Paterson.  He  criticized  the  doings  in  Paterson,  and 
chief  Bimson  as  head  doer,  in  an  editorial  of  which 
the  New  York  Tribune  said  :  "We  have  read  as  severe 
criticisms  of  municipal  administration  and  of  their 
police  as  those  of  Scott  in  many  papers  published  in 
many  places."  On  the  charge  of  attempting  to  sub- 
vert government,  Scott  was  tried  and  convicted,  and 
received  an  indeterminate  sentence  of  from  one  to 
fifteen  years  in  prison.  The  Supreme  Court  has  not 
yet  passed  upon  his  case,  but  in  the  meantime  these 
words  from  Collier's  are  worth  considering :  "We  do 
not  believe  any  court  in  America  will  sustain  this  law 
or  the  sentence  of  this  editor.  The  passage  of  the 
law  itself  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  passed  is  a 
shining  example  of  legislative  incompetence,  and  the 
trial  of  Scott  is  a  piece  of  judicial  folly."  1 

A  year  ago  we  should  have  thought  and  said  that 

1  In  April,  1914,  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Jersey  reversed 
the  conviction  of  Scott.  Justice  Kalish,  in  his  decision,  severely 
criticized  Judge  Klenert,  the  trial  judge,  for  not  quashing  the 
indictment  or  ordering  a  verdict  of  acquittal.  He  affirmed  in 
strong  terms  the  right  of  free  speech  and  freedom  of  the  press. 
The  character  of  the  "courts  of  justice"  in  Paterson  during  the 
strike  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  every  conviction,  save  one,  has 
been  reversed,  and  the  one  exception  is  still  pending  in  the 
courts. 


368  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

nothing  could  surpass  the  lawlessness  of  Paterson  or 
the  brutality  of  West  Virginia,  but  the  spring  of 
1914  gave  the  American  people  a  new  object-lesson 
of  the  exploitation  of  the  class  that  works  by  the 
class  that  shirks.  Almost  simultaneous  strikes  oc- 
curred among  the  workers  in  the  copper  mines  of 
Michigan  and  the  coal  mines  of  Colorado.  There  was 
nothing  new  or  specially  instructive  in  the  Michigan 
strike,  where,  after  a  long  struggle,  the  miners  were 
compelled  to  return  to  work  on  the  employers'  terms. 
Nothing  need  be  said  regarding  this  matter,  beyond 
the  comment  of  the  New  York  World: 

"What  the  employers  do  as  a  matter  of  course,  it  is 
unlawful  for  the  employees  to  do.  The  employers 
combine;  they  monopolize;  they  set  aside  law;  they 
hire  fighting  men;  they  make  war.  Because  the  em- 
ployers have  had  these  advantages  and  have  refused 
to  arbitrate,  they  have  won  a  famous  victory  over  a 
naturally  industrious  and  peaceable  population,  which 
has  not  been  worn  out  so  much  as  it  has  been  starved 
out.  Some  triumphs  are  worth  while  and  some  are 
not.  In  this  country  injustice  and  hunger  never  yet 
made  a  conquest  that  endured." 

The  facts  about  the  Colorado  struggle  were  for  a 
time  difficult  to  learn,  owing  to  manipulation  of 
the  news  by  almost  the  whole  of  the  American  press; 
and  so  far  as  possible  the  facts  have  been  kept  from 
the  people  until  now.  But  some  things  have  been  ad- 
mitted or  established  under  oath.  The  strikers  made 
seven  demands,  five  of  which  had  been  granted  by  acts 
of  legislature,  but  persistently  refused  by  the  mine 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS*'  369 

owners.  That  these  grievances  of  the  miners  were  not 
imaginary,  is  fully  established  by  this  report  of  a  Fed- 
eral grand  jury,  in  September,  1913:  "That  State 
laws  have  not  been  enforced  so  as  to  give  all  persons 
concerned  benefits  which  are  derivable  therefrom;  that 
coal  companies  have  nominated,  elected  and  controlled 
county  officers;  that  county  officers  elected  by  the 
coal  companies  have  shown  undue  activity  in  control- 
ling elections,  having  in  one  instance  changed  the  pre- 
cinct boundaries,  presumably  to  eliminate  unfavorable 
votes  of  the  miners,  and  have  thus  aroused  not  only 
political  but  social  dissatisfaction;  that  many  camp 
marshals,  whose  appointments  and  salaries  are  con- 
trolled by  coal  companies,  have  exercised  a  system  of 
espionage  and  have  resorted  to  arbitrary  powers  of 
police  control,  acting  as  judge  and  jury  and  passing 
sentence;  that  camp  marshals  have  brutally  assaulted 
miners;  that  miners  cannot  complain  of  real  griev- 
ances without  being  discharged;  that  the  scrip  sys- 
tem is  still  in  effect ;  that  miners  feel  under  an  unjust 
obligation  to  trade  at  the  company  stores  because  of 
the  attitude  of  mine  superintendents;  that  check 
weighmen  have  been  denied  the  miners."  a 

When  the  strike  began,  the  usual  tactics  were  em- 
ployed by  the  operators :  Guards  were  hired  and 
armed,  strike-breakers  were  brought  in,  and  the  gov- 
ernor was  persuaded  to  call  out  the  militia.  The  pri- 
vate guards  were  enrolled  and  uniformed  as  members 

1  Speech  of  the  Hon.  Edward  Keating,  representative  from 
Southern  Colorado,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  May  30, 
1914. 


370  THE   GOSPEL  OF   JESUS 

of  the  militia  and  machine  guns  were  added  to  their 
equipment.  At  this  stage  a  Congressional  Committee 
began  an  investigation,  and  among  the  witnesses  called 
was  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  as  the  representa- 
tive of  his  father,  who  owns  a  controlling  interest  in 
one  of  the  largest  corporations  involved  in  the  strike. 
Mr.  Rockefeller  said,  among  other  things:  "I  have 
done  what  I  regard  as  best  in  the  interests  of  the 
employees  and  the  large  investment  I  represent.  We 
have  put  the  best  men  obtainable  in  charge,  and  are 
relying  on  their  judgment.  My  conscience  entirely 
acquits  me.  We  would  rather  that  the  unfortunate 
conditions  should  continue  and  that  we  should  lose 
all  the  millions  invested  than  that  American  work- 
men should  be  deprived  of  their  right  to  work  for 
whom  they  please.  That  is  the  great  principle  at 
stake.  It  is  a  national  issue." 

In  a  later  public  statement  Mr.  Rockefeller  said  that 
less  than  ten  per  cent,  of  his  employees  are  union  men. 
The  other  90  per  cent.,  he  affects  to  believe,  are  in 
such  fear  of  their  lives  from  this  small  minority,  and 
so  apprehensive  that  they  may  be  compelled  to  work 
for  shorter  hours  and  higher  wages  than  he  offers 
them,  that  they  have  most  unwillingly  joined  the 
strike.  And  he  is  nobly  determined  to  protect  them, 
if  it  costs  a  considerable  part  of  his  great  fortune! 
There  is,  indeed,  a  principle  at  stake  in  this  matter, 
but  it  is  quite  other  than  that  stated  by  Mr.  Rockefel- 
ler :  it  is  the  right  of  the  employer  to  compel  the  miner 
to  work  the  longest  possible  number  of  hours  at  the 
smallest  possible  wage,  and  to  resist  the  union  through 


THE    PROBLEM    OF       LAWLESSNESS"  37! 

which  alone  the  miner  can  deal  collectively  and  there- 
fore effectively  with  his  employer. 

Fifteen  days  after  the  capitalists  had  thus  an- 
nounced their  ultimatum  through  Mr.  Rockefeller,  the 
"militia"  opened  fire  on  the  tent-colony  of  miners  at 
Ludlow.  To  escape  the  hail  of  bullets,  the  women 
and  children  crawled  into  pits  that  had  been  dug  for 
shelter;  but  the  canvas  tents  caught  fire,  and  twenty- 
nine  persons  perished  there — including  two  women 
and  eleven  little  children,  some  of  them  babes  in  arms. 
Nothing  but  the  prompt  sending  of  Federal  troops 
to  Colorado  by  President  Wilson  prevented  a  bloody 
civil  war.  That  the  entire  nation  was  horrified  is 
no  exaggeration.  It  brought  home  to  many  people, 
as  nothing  had  ever  done,  as  perhaps  nothing  else 
could  ever  have  done,  the  fact  that  the  ruling  class 
of  our  country,  the  great  capitalists,  will  stick  at 
nothing:  they  are  ready  to  exterminate  all  who  op- 
pose them,  rather  than  have  labor  controversies  set- 
tled on  principles  of  justice  and  humanity. 

The  courts  of  Colorado,  military  or  civil,  will  do 
nothing,  or  worse  than  nothing.  Military  tribunals 
have  been  busy  ever  since  with  "trials"  that  are  a 
travesty  of  justice.  Most  of  the  guilty  have  been 
exonerated.  One  case  was  too  flagrant  for  that: 
Lieutenant  Linderfelt,  of  the  militia,  killed  a  Greek 
miner  most  obnoxious  to  the  operators  as  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  strike,  by  beating  him  over  the 
head  with  a  rifle  while  he  was  under  protection  of 
a  flag  of  truce.  He  admitted  his  act,  and  the  court 
could  do  no  less  than  find  a  verdict  accordingly;  but 


372  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

as  a  penalty  sentenced  him  to  be  reduced  five  files  in 
rank!  How  well  this  compares  with  the  sentences 
of  the  McNamaras! 

One  thing  has  been  made  clear  by  these  events. 
At  once  and  for  all  time  to  come,  the  right  to  employ 
armed  guards  must  be  taken  from  private  persons 
and  corporations.  The  maintenance  of  peace  is  a 
function  of  government ;  the  State  alone  has  the  right 
to  use  force,  and  that  only  as  a  last  resort.  We  have 
gone  back  to  the  private  warfare  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  new  feudal  nobles,  called  capitalists,  have  their 
condottieri  and  use  them  with  as  little  scruple  as 
marked  the  older  feudalism.  This  is  not  law  and  or- 
der, but  anarchy.  At  any  cost,  this  private  warfare 
must  be  suppressed.  It  is  the  negation  of  civilization 
and  a  reversion  to  barbarism.  Let  us  say  nothing 
more  of  the  backwardness  of  Mexico  in  the  ways  of 
civilization  and  peace,  until  we  have  successfully 
solved  this  problem.  In  the  meantime  what  has  the 
Christian  press  and  the  Christian  pulpit  been  saying 
about  this  matter?  How  has  it  been  applying  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  to  this  problem?  There  has  been 
silence  that  might  be  felt! 


VI 


But  are  not  the  workers  also  violent  and  lawless? 
When  forcible  resistance  is  made  to  the  social  order, 
can  society  sit  idly  by  and  let  things  take  their  course  ? 
The  question  is  pertinent,  and  there  can  be  only  one 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    "LAWLESSNESS"  373 

reply.  Those  who  proclaim  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  must 
oppose  all  efforts  to  better  social  conditions  by  vio- 
lence. They  are  servants  of  One  who  counsels  sub- 
mission to  wrong-  rather  than  forcible  redress.  So- 
cialism speaks  with  the  same  voice  as  religion  on 
this  point,  though  not  with  the  same  motive.  The 
socialist  perceives  the  teaching  of  history  and  experi- 
ence to  be  clear,  that  violence  always  reacts  against 
the  cause  it  is  intended  to  promote. 

Let  the  advocates  of  the  Gospel,  however,  take  more 
care  to  insist  that  the  principle  be  applied  impartially 
to  all  classes  of  society.  The  minister  of  Christ 
should  condemn  cruel  beatings  and  the  shooting  down 
of  unarmed  men  and  women  and  the  bayoneting  of 
boys,  whether  this  is  done  by  those  who  would  destroy 
"law  and  order"  or  by  those  who  think  by  such  meth- 
ods to  uphold  it.  One  ethical  measuring-wand  must 
be  applied  to  all  men,  rich  or  poor.  And  of  the  two 
kinds  of  violence,  disciples  of  the  Carpenter  of  Galilee 
would  do  well  to  be  more  lenient  in  judgment  of  the 
violence  of  workers  goaded  to  desperation  by  their 
wrongs,  and  striking  out  blindly  against  they  know 
not  whom  or  what,  than  of  the  coldly  calculated  vio- 
lence of  those  who  are  striving  to  perpetuate  these 
wrongs.  Let  teachers  of  Christian  ethics  reprobate 
the  brutality  of  the  servants  of  the  law  as  strongly 
as  the  brutality  of  those  whom  they  call  the  lawless. 
The  followers  of  the  poor  and  lowly  Jesus  ought  to 
be  found  ranged  with  the  oppressed,  not  with  the 
oppressors.  They  should  be  able  to  see  that  murder 
is  the  same  crime  in  the  sight  of  God  when  done  by 


374  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

the  rich  and  powerful  as  when  done  by  the  poor  and 
ignorant.  The  clergy  should  proclaim  from  the  house- 
tops that  the  possession  of  wealth  and  intelligence 
and  power  lays  a  heavy  burden  of  obligation  on  the 
possessors  to  do  justly  and  to  love  mercy,  and  that 
to  pretend  to  walk  humbly  with  God  is  no  excuse  for 
lack  of  these  qualities.  Piety  is  not  a  substitute  for 
righteousness.  In  short,  what  is  demanded  is  a  prac- 
tical reversal  of  the  ethics  taught  in  the  average 
Christian  pulpit  to-day.  Christianize  "law  and  or- 
der," and  it  will  be  respected  and  there  will  be  no 
violence  to  suppress. 

Until  such  ethical  principles  as  have  been  thus  indi- 
cated are  accepted  and  proclaimed,  as  an  inseparable 
part  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus,  there  will  remain  a  great 
gulf  fixed  between  the  workers  and  the  Church. 
Until  such  ethics  are  embodied  in  law  and  order,  let 
nobody  expect  to  see  law  and  order  greeted  with 
anything  but  derision  and  revolt  by  the  workers. 
What  many  call  "lawlessness"  is  a  symptom  of  social 
health,  not  of  social  disease ;  it  is  a  barometer  of  social 
evils.  Resistance  to  injustice  shows  that  the  spirit  of 
manhood  is  still  alive.  When  a  man  or  a  class  gets 
to  the  point  where  it  takes  abuse  lying  down,  it  has 
hardly  manhood  enough  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
brutes.  As  Americans,  we  still  boast  that  this  is  the 
one  country  under  heaven  in  which  the  people  will 
not  remain  supine  under  oppression  and  tamely  sub- 
mit to  organized  injustice. 

In  most  of  our  American  communities,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  conclude,  there  is  no  longer  anything  that 


it 


THE   PROBLEM    OF   "LAWLESSNESS  375 

deserves  the  name  of  law  or  order.  There  is  power, 
brutal  force,  but  no  law.  Corporate  power  has  shown 
its  ability  to  break  down  every  barrier  that  the  civiliza- 
tion of  five  thousand  years  had  succeeded  in  throwing 
about  life  and  liberty.  It  has  proceeded  to  suspend 
constitutions,  nullify  statutes,  usurp  all  the  functions 
of  government,  proclaim  martial  law  and  put  men 
to  death,  banish  them  or  imprison  them  at  pleasure, 
without  process  of  law.  Corporate  power  has  not 
merely  done  this  once,  it  has  done  it  in  at  least  seven 
different  States  within  the  past  five  years,  and  has 
proved  that  it  can  and  will  do  the  like  anywhere  and 
as  often  as  may  be  necessary.  Could  there  be  better 
preparation  for  a  violent  revolution  than  vast  power 
thus  lodged  in  the  hands  of  an  irresponsible  few, 
power  used  without  reference  to  law,  controlling  all 
the  machinery  of  justice,  and  using  police  and  courts 
in  reckless  oppression  of  all  who  stand  in  their  way 
or  oppose  their  will  ?  Can  men  see  their  dearest  liber- 
ties contemptuously  denied,  ruthlessly  overridden,  and 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  peaceful  methods  of  agita- 
tion are  useless,  that  the  only  possible  redress  left 
them  is  appeal  to  force? 

"Law  and  order"  has  thus  far  been  the  Gibraltar 
of  capitalism — this  power  to  make,  interpret  and  en- 
force laws.  The  class  that  possesses  such  power 
controls  society.  But  continuance  of  the  system  de- 
pends on  respect  for  it  by  capitalists  themselves;  and 
at  present  they  are  doing  their  very  best  to  shatter  it 
to  bits.  Nothing  is  so  fatal  to  the  existence  of  a  law- 
abiding  sentiment  in  any  community  as  the  well- 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

founded  conviction  that  the  law  itself  is  unjust  and 
its  administration  unfair.  The  supremacy  of  capital- 
ism thus  far  has  been  due  to  its  combination  of  wealth 
and  intelligence.  The  worker  has  no  wealth  and  has 
hitherto  been  also  deficient  in  intelligence,  but  there 
has  been  a  great  awakening  on  his  part  and  he  is 
learning  that  his  deliverance  lies  in  concerted  political 
action,  which  will  take  from  the  capitalistic  class  con- 
trol of  law.  When  the  intelligence  of  the  workers 
generally  becomes  equal  to  establishing  a  solidarity 
comparable  to  that  of  their  oppressors,  their  battle 
will  be  virtually  won.  They  can  then  make  law  cor- 
respond in  fact  to  the  ideal,  make  order  signify  justice 
and  not  injustice.  Then  law  and  order  will  be  re- 
spected, because  they  will  be  worthy  of  respect.  They 
will  rest  on  the  will  of  a  free  people,  and  will  express 
their  convictions  of  the  rights  of  man.  Let  us  pray 
that  the  twentieth  century  will  witness  the  passing  of 
the  old  world — this  world  in  which  the  poor  starve 
while  the  rich  die  of  surfeit;  this  world  where  thou- 
sands laugh  while  millions  weep;  this  world  where 
the  great  masses  toil  without  hope  that  the  favored 
few  may  play  without  joy.  Let  us  pray — and  labor — 
that  the  twentieth  century  may  witness  the  coming 
of  a  new  world  in  which  righteousness  shall  dwell — 
a  world  distinguished  by  a  new  religion  and  a  new 
social  order:  the  religion  of  Jesus  and  the  Kingdom, 
and  the  human  brotherhood  that  He  came  to  establish. 
The  Gospel  of  Jesus  in  the  twentieth  century  is 
the  same  as  in  the  first:  "The  Kingdom  of  God  is 
at  hand :  repent  and  believe  the  Glad  Tidings." 


APPENDIX 

A.    BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER   I 

Royce,  Josiah,  The  Problem  of  Christianity,  2  vols.,  New 
York,  1913. 

Smith,  G.  B.,  Social  Idealism  and  the  Changing  Theol- 
ogy, New  York,  1913. 

Smith,   Samuel   G.,  Democracy  and  the  Church,  New 
York,  1912. 

Rauschenbusch,  Walter,  Christianizing  the  Social  Order, 
New  York,  1913. 

Howerton,  J.  R.,  The  Church  and  Social  Reform,  New 
York,  1913. 

Sims,  P.  M.,  What  Must  the  Church  Do  to  Be  Saved? 
New  York,  1913. 

Kutter,  Hermann,  They  Must;  or,  God  and  the  Social 
Democracy,  Chicago,  1913. 

Womer,  P.  P.,  The  Church  and  the  Labor  Conflict,  New 
York,  1913. 

Trawick,  A.  M.,  The  City  Church  and  Its  Social  Mission, 
New  York,  1912. 

The  Country  Church  and  Community  Cooperation,  New 
York,  1912. 

Gill,  C.  O.,  and  Pinchot,  Gifford,  The  Country  Church, 
New  York,  1913. 

Holmes,  J.  H.,  The  Revolutionary  Function  of  the  Mod- 
ern Church,  New  York,  1912. 
377 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Ross,  E.  A.,  Sin  and  Society,  New  York,  1913. 

Fiske,  G.  W.,  The  Challenge  of  the  Country,  New  York, 

1912. 
Wallis,  Louis,  Sociological  Study  of  the  Bible,  Chicago, 

1912. 
Hall,  T.  C,  Social  Solutions  in  the  Light  of  Christian 

Ethics,  New  York,  1910. 
Euchen,  Rudolf,  Can  We  Still  Be  Christians  ?  New  York, 

1914. 
Mann,  J.  E.  R,  and  others,  The  Real  Democracy,  New 

York,  1913. 
Adams,  Brooks,  The  Theory  of  Social  Revolutions,  New 

York,  1914. 

Nearing,  Scott,  Social  Sanity,  New  York,  1913. 
Downes,  L.,  The  New  Democracy,  Boston,  1910. 
Coffin,  J.  H.,  The  Socialized  Conscience,  Baltimore,  1914. 
Schell,  Hermann,  The  New  Ideals  in  the  Gospel,  New 

York,  1914. 
Zueblin,   Charles,  Democracy  and   the  Overman,   New 

York,  1910. 
The  Church,  the  People  and  the  Age,  edited  by  Robert 

Scott  and  George  William  Gilmore,  New  York,  1914. 
Ward,  H.  F.,  The  Social  Creed  of  the  Churches,  New 

York,  1914. 

Tyler,  J.  M.,  The  Place  of  the  Church  in  Evolution,  Bos- 
ton, 1914. 


CHAPTER    II 

Small,  Albion  W.,  Between  Eras:    from  Capitalism  to 

Democracy,  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  1913. 
Devine,  Edward  T.,  The  Spirit  of  Social  Work,  New 

York,  1911. 


APPENDIX  379 

Tolman,  W.  H.,  and  Kendall,  L.  B.,  Safety:    Methods 

for  Preventing  Occupational  and  Other  Accidents, 

New  York,  1913. 

Ellwood,  Charles  A.,  Sociology  in  Its  Psychological  As- 
pects, New  York,  1912. 
Le  Bon,  Gustave,  The  Psychology  of  Revolution,  New 

York,  1913. 
Boyd,  J.  H.,  Workmen's  Compensation  and  Industrial 

Insurance,  2  vols.,  Indianapolis,  1913. 
Pouget,  £mile,  Sabotage  (translated  by  Arturo  Giovan- 

itti),  Chicago,  1913. 

Quick,  Herbert,  On  Board  the  Good  Ship  Earth,  Indian- 
apolis, 1913. 
Wallace,  Alfred  Russel,  Social  Environment  and  Moral 

Progress,  New  York,  1913. 
Clark,  J.  B.,  Social  Justice  Without  Socialism,  Boston, 

1914. 
Rubinow,  I.  M.,  Social  Insurance,  with  Special  Reference 

to  American  Conditions,  New  York,  1913. 
Hobson,  John  A.,  Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism,  New 

York,  1894. 
Fisher,  Irving,  Why  Is  the  Dollar  Shrinking?  New  York, 

1914. 
Lusk,  Hugh  N.,  Social  Welfare  in  New  Zealand,  New 

York,  1913. 
Roberts,  Elmer,  Monarchical  Socialism  in  Germany,  New 

York,  1913. 
Goldmark,  Josephine,  Fatigue  and  Efficiency,  New  York, 

1912. 

Skeels,  Isaiah,  Cost  and  Price,  Cleveland,  1914. 
Martin,  F.  T.,  The  Passing  of  the  Idle  Rich,  New  York, 

1911. 
Foster,  W.  T.,  The  Social  Emergency,  Boston,  1914. 


380  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Walling,  W.  E.,  Progressivism  and  After,  New  York, 
1914. 

CHAPTER   III 

Mill,  J.  S.,  The  Subjection  of  Women.     Many  editions. 
Densmore,  E.,  Sex  Equality,  New  York,  1907. 
Schreiner,  O.,  Woman  and  Labor,  New  York,  1911. 
U.  S.  Labor  Bureau,  Bulletin  73  :   Laws  Relative  to  Em- 

ployment  of   Women   and    Children,    Washington, 

1907. 
Fawcett,  M.,  Woman's  Suffrage  —  a  short  history  of  a 

great  movement,  New  York,  1912. 
Squire,  Belle,  The  Woman  Movement  in  America,  New 

York,  1911. 
Rembaugh,  Bertha,  Political  Status  of  Women  in  the 

United  States,  New  York,  1911. 
White,  F.,  Laws  on  Marriage,  Divorce  and   Property 

Rights  of  Women  of  All  States,  New  York,  1910. 
Dorr,  Rheta,  What  Eight  Million  Women  Want,  New 

York,  1910. 
George,  W.  L.,  Woman  and  To-Morrow,  New  York, 


Floyd,  Dell,  Women  and  World  Builders,  Chicago,  1913. 
Key,  Ellen,  Love  and  Marriage,  New  York,  1911. 

The  Woman  Movement,  New  York,  1912. 
Abbot,  Edith,  Women  in  Industry,  New  York,  1910. 
Van  Kleeck,  Ellen,  Women  in  the  Bookbinding  Trade, 

New  York,  1913. 
Butler,  Elizabeth   B.,  Women  and  the  Trades   (Pitts- 

burgh Survey),  New  York,  1909. 

Saleswomen  in  Mercantile  Stores,  New  York,  1912. 
Martin,  Edward  Sanford,  The  Unrest  of  Women,  New 

York,  1913. 


APPENDIX  381 

Goldmark,  J.  C,  Handbook  of  Laws  Regulating  Women's 

Labor,  New  York,  1912. 
Gilman,  Charlotte  Perkins,  Women  and  Economics,  New 

York,  1898. 
Morley,  Edith  J.,  Women  Workers  in  Seven  Professions, 

New  York,  1914. 
Van  Vorst,  Mrs.  John  and  Marie,  The  Woman  Who 

Toils,  New  York,  1903. 
Cadbury,    Edward,    and    others,    Women's    Work    and 

Wages,  New  York,  1907. 
Bosworth,  L.  M.,  The  Living  Wage  of  Women  Workers, 

New  York,  1911. 

Nearing,  Scott,  and  N.  M.  S.,  Woman  and  Social  Prog- 
ress, New  York,  1912. 


CHAPTER   IV 

Nearing,   Scott,  The  Solution  of  the  Problem  of  the 

Child,  New  York,  1911. 
Keeling,  Frederic,  Child  Labour  in  the  United  Kingdom, 

London,  1914. 
Engel,    Sigmund,    The   Elements    of    Child    Protection, 

translated  from  the  German  by  Dr.  Eden  Paul,  New 

York,  1912. 
Flexner  and  Baldwin,  Juvenile  Courts  and  Probation, 

New  York,  1914. 
Clopper,   Edward,   Child   Labor  in   City   Streets,   New 

York,  1912. 
Key,  Ellen,  The  Century  of  the  Child,  New  York,  1909. 

The  Education  of  the  Child,  New  York,  1910. 
Henderson,  C.  Hanford,  Pay-Day,  Boston,   1911. 

Education  and  the  Larger  Life,  Boston,  1902. 

What  Is  It  to  be  Educated  ?  Boston,  1914. 


382  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Montessori,  Maria,  The  Montessori  Method,  translated 

by  Anna  E.  George,  New  York,  1912. 
Stevens,  Ellen  Yale,  A  Guide  to  the  Montessori  Method, 

New  York,  1913. 
Smith,  Anna  Tolman,  The  Montessori  Method  of  Edu- 

cation, U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  17,  1912. 
Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1912,  2  vols., 

Washington,  1913. 
King,    Irving,    Education    for    Social    Efficiency,    New 

York,  1913. 
Ferrer,  Francisco,  The  Origin  and  Ideals  of  the  Mod- 

ern School,  New  York,  1913. 
Weeks,  Arland  D.,  The  Education  of  To-Morrow,  New 

York,  1913. 
Eggleston  and  Bruere,  The  Work  of  the  Rural  School, 

New  York,  1913. 

Antin,  Mary,  The  Promised  Land,  Boston,  1912. 
Ayres,  Leonard,  Laggards  in  Our  Schools,  New  York, 


Holmes,  William  H.,  School  Organization  and  the  Indus- 

trial Child,  Worcester,  Mass.,  1912. 
Snedden,  David,  Problems  of  Educational  Readjustment, 

Boston,  1913. 
Best,  R.  N.,  and  Ogden,  C  K.,  The  Problem  of  the  Con- 

tinuation School  and  Its  Successful  Solution  in  Ger- 

many, London,  1914. 
Leake,  Albert  H.,  Industrial  Education:    Its  Problems, 

Methods  and  Dangers,  Boston,  1913. 
Riis,  Jacob,  Children  of  the  Tenements,  New  York,  1902. 
Addams,  Jane,  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets, 

New  York,  1912. 
Bancroft,   J.    H.,    Games    for   the    Playground,   Home, 

School  and  Gymnasium,  New  York,  1909. 


APPENDIX  383 

Fisher,  H.  W.,  Making  Life  Worth  While,  New  York, 

1910. 

Groos,  Karl,  The  Play  of  Man,  New  York,  1901. 
Gulick,  L.  H.,  The  Efficient  Life,  New  York,  1907. 
Groves,  F.  P.,  A  History  of  Education  in  Modern  Times, 

New  York,  1913. 

CHAPTER  V 

De  Forest  and  Veiller,  The  Tenement  House  Prob- 
lem, 2  vols.,  New  York,  1903. 

Veiller,  Lawrence,  Housing  Reform,  New  York,  1910. 

Nettlefold,  J.  S.,  Practical  Housing,  Letchworth,  Eng., 
1908. 

Koester,  Frank,  Modern  City  Planning  and  Maintenance, 
New  York,  1914. 

Howe,  Frederick  C,  European  Cities  at  Work,  New 
York,  1913. 

Riis,  Jacob,  The  Battle  with  the  Slum,  New  York,  1902. 
How  the  Other  Half  Lives,  New  York,  1890. 

Wilcox,  D.  F.,  Municipal  Franchises,  2  vols.,  New  York, 
1914. 

Crawford,  W.  H.,  Church  and  Slum,  New  York,  1908. 

Slums  of  Baltimore,  New  York,  Chicago  and  Philadel- 
phia, U.  S.  Labor  Bureau,  Washington,  1894. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  Bulletin  54:  Housing  of  the 
Working  People  by  Employers,  Washington,  1904. 
Many  titles  under  Chapters  VI  and  VII  will  also  be 
found  to  contain  pertinent  matter. 

CHAPTER   VI 

The  Social  Evil  in  Chicago,  a  Study  of  Existing  Condi- 
tions with  Recommendations  by  the  Vice  Commis- 
sion of  Chicago,  Chicago,  1911. 


384  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Report  of  the  Vice  Commission  of  Chicago,  New  York, 

1912. 
Kneeland,   G.   J.,  Commercialized   Prostitution  in   New 

York  City,  with  an  Introduction  by  John  D.  Rocke- 
feller, Jr.,  New  York,  1912. 

Philadelphia  Vice  Commission  Report,  New  York,  1913. 
Janney,  O.  Edward,  The  White  Slave  Traffic,  New  York, 

1911. 
Bell,  E.  A.,  War  on  the  White  Slave  Trade,  New  York, 

1909. 

Seligman,  E.  E.  A.,  The  Social  Evil,  New  York,  1912. 
Addams,  Jane,  A  New  Conscience  and  an  Ancient  Evil, 

New  York,  1912. 
Flexner,  Abraham,  Prostitution  in  Europe,  New  York, 

1914. 
Kauffman,  R.  W.,  The  House  of  Bondage,  New  York, 

1910. 
Gordon,  Ernest,  The  Anti-Alcohol  Movement  in  Europe, 

New  York,  1914. 


CHAPTER    VII 

An  Open  Letter  to  Society  from  Convict  1776,  New 
York,  1911. 

Berkman,  Alexander,  Memoirs  of  an  Anarchist,  New 
York,  1912. 

Aschaffenburg,  Gustav,  Crime  and  Its  Repression,  Bos- 
ton, 1913. 

Bonger,  W.  A.,  Criminality  and  Economic  Conditions, 
Boston,  1913. 

Ferri,  Enrico,  Criminal  Sociology,  New  York,  1912. 

Jones,  George,  A  History  of  Penal  Methods,  London, 
1914. 


APPENDIX  385 

Hopkins,  Tighe,  Wards  of  the  State :  an  Unofficial  View 
of  Prison  and  the  Prisoners,  Boston,  1913. 

Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction,  Annual. 

Gross,  Hans,  Criminal  Psychology,  Boston,  1911. 

Lombroso,  Cesare,  Crime,  Its  Causes  and  Remedies,  Bos- 
ton, 1911. 

McConnell,  R.  M.,  Criminal  Responsibility  and  Social 
Constraint,  New  York,  1912. 

Tarde,  Gabriel,  Penal  Philosophy,  Boston,  1912. 

Booth,  Maud  Ballington;  After  Prison — What?  New 
York,  1903. 

Devon,  J.,  The  Criminal  and  the  Community,  New  York, 
1911. 

Life  in  Sing  Sing,  by  Number  1500,  Indianapolis,  1904. 

De  Lacy,  W.  H.,  Treatment  of  Criminals  by  Probation, 
59th  Congress,  second  session,  Senate  Document  12, 
Washington,  1906. 

Wines,  F.  H.,  Punishment  and  Reformation,  New  York, 
1910. 

Correction  and  Prevention,  4  vols.,  Russell  Sage  Founda- 
tion, 1913. 

Proceedings  of  the  Annual  Congress  of  the  American 
Prison  Association,  Annual. 

Garofalo,  Raffaele,  Criminology,  Boston,  1914. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

Moore,  B.,  Dawn  of  the  Health  Age,  London,  1911. 
Hutchinson,  Woods,  Preventable  Diseases,  Boston,  1909. 

Conquest  of  Consumption,  Boston,  1910. 
M'Vail,  J.  C,  Prevention  of  Infectious  Diseases,  New 

York,  1907. 


THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

Behring,  E.  A.,  Suppression  of  Tuberculosis,  New  York, 
1904. 

Otis,  E.  O.,  Tuberculosis — Its  Cause,  Cure  and  Preven- 
tion, New  York,  1914. 

Russell,  F.  H.,  Control  of  Typhoid  in  the  Army,  Wash- 
ington, 1911. 

Abbott,  A.  C,  Hygiene  of  Transmissible  Diseases,  Phila- 
delphia, 1901. 

Doty,  A.  H.,  Prevention  of  Infectious  Diseases,  New 
York,  1911. 

National  Association  for  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tu- 
berculosis, Proceedings. 

International  Congress  on  Tuberculosis,  Transactions. 

Henry  Phipps  Institute,  Annual  Reports  of,  Philadelphia. 

Salesby,  Parenthood  and  Race  Culture,  New  York,  1912. 

Davenport,  C.  B.,  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics,  New 
York,  1913. 


CHAPTER   IX 
Koester,  Frank,  The  Price  of  Inefficiency,  New  York, 


La  Fargue,  Paul,  The  Right  to  Be  Lazy,  Chicago,  1907. 
McCann,  A.  W.,  Starving  America,  New  York,  1913. 
Hunter,  Robert,  Poverty,  New  York,  1904. 
Devine,  E.  T.,  Misery  and  Its  Causes,  New  York,  1909. 
Haggard,  H.  Rider,  Regeneration,  New  York,  1910. 
Webb,  Sidney  and  Beatrice,  Prevention  of  Destitution, 

London,  1911. 
Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 

Correction,  Annual. 
Wallis,  Graham,  The  Great  Society,  New  York,  1914. 


APPENDIX  387 

U.  S.  Labor  Bulletin,  53  and  54:    Cost  of  Living  and 
Retail  Prices  in  the  U.  S.,  Washington,  1904. 
Bulletin  64 :  Conditions  of  Living  Among  the  Poor, 
1906. 

Barnett,  S.  A.  and  H.  O.,  Toward  Social  Reform,  New 
York,  1909. 

Besant,  Walter,  and  others,  Poor  in  Great  Cities,  New 
York,  1900. 

Henderson,  C.  R.,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Depen- 
dent, Defective  and  Delinquent  Classes,  Chicago,  1901. 

Rowntree,  B.  S.,  Land  and  Labor:    Lessons  from  Bel- 
gium, New  York,  1910. 

Beveridge,  W.  H.,  Unemployment,  New  York,  1909. 

Nearing,   Scott,   Financing  the  Wage-Earner's   Family, 
New  York,  1913. 

Reducing  the  Cost  of  Living,  New  York,  1914. 

Brandeis,  Louis  D.,  Other  People's  Money,  and  How 
the  Bankers  Use  It,  New  York,  1914. 

CHAPTER    X 

Beard,  Charles  A.,  An  Economic  Interpretation  of  the 

Constitution,  New  York,  1913. 
Farrand,  Max,  The  Framing  of  the  Constitution,  New 

Haven,  1913. 
Countryman,  Edwin,  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 

States,  Albany,  1913. 
Judson,   F.    N.,   The   Judiciary   and   the   People,    New 

Haven,  1913. 
Moore,  B.  F.,  The  Supreme  Court  and  Unconstitutional 

Legislation,  New  York,  1913. 

Abbot.  E.  V.,  Justice  and  the  Modern  Law,  Boston,  1913. 
Cleveland,  F.  A.,  Organized  Democracy,  New  York,  1913. 
Coudert,  F.  R.,  Certainty  and  Justice,  New  York,  1913. 


388  THE    GOSPEL    OF    JESUS 

Haines,  C.  G.,  The  American  Doctrine  of  Judicial  Su- 
premacy, New  York,  1914. 

Laidler,  H.  W.,  Boycotts  and  the  Labor  Struggle,  New 
York,  1914. 

Bulletins  of  the  Labor  Bureau,  Washington,  1905-1914 ; 
contain  full  and  accurate  digests  of  statutes  and  de- 
cisions of  courts  pertaining  to  workers  and  indus- 
trial questions. 

Mitchell,  John,  Organized  Labor,  Philadelphia,  1913. 

Reform  in  the  Administration  of  Justice,  Baltimore, 
1914. 

Hunter,  Robert,  Violence  and  the  Labor  Movement,  New 
York,  1914. 


B.  PROGRAMS  FOR  SOCIAL  REFORM 

THE   PROGRESSIVE    PARTY 

Social  and  Industrial  Reform. — Effective  legislation 
looking  to  the  prevention  of  industrial  accidents,  occupa- 
tional diseases,  overwork,  involuntary  unemployment, 
and  other  injurious  effects  incident  to  modern  industry. 

The  fixing  of  minimum  safety  and  health  standards 
for  the  various  occupations,  and  the  exercise  of  the  pub- 
lic authority  of  State  and  Nation,  including  the  Federal 
control  over  interstate  commerce  and  the  taxing  power, 
to  maintain  such  standards. 

The  prohibition  of  child  labor. 

Minimum  wage  standards  for  working  women,  to  pro- 
vide a  "living  scale"  in  all  industrial  occupations. 

The  prohibition  of  night  work  for  women  and  the 
establishment  of  an  eight-hour  day  for  women  and  young 
persons. 


APPENDIX  389 

One  day's  rest  in  seven  for  all  wage  workers. 

The  eight-hour  day  in  continuous  twenty- four  hour 
industries. 

The  abolition  of  the  convict  contract  labor  system; 
substituting  a  system  of  prison  production  for  govern- 
mental consumption  only,  and  the  application  of  prison- 
ers' earnings  to  the  support  of  their  dependent  families. 

Publicity  as  to  wages,  hours  and  conditions  ol  labor ; 
full  reports  upon  industrial  accidents  and  diseases,  and 
the  opening  to  public  inspection  of  all  tallies,  weights, 
measures  and  check  systems  on  labor  products. 

Standards  of  compensation  for  death  by  industrial  ac- 
cident and  injury  and  trade  diseases,  which  will  transfer 
the  burden  of  lost  earnings  from  the  families  of  work- 
ing people  to  the  industry,  and  thus  to  the  community. 

The  protection  of  home  life  against  the  hazards  of 
sickness,  irregular  employment  and  old  age,  through  the 
adoption  of  a  system  of  social  insurance  adapted  to 
American  use. 

The  development  of  the  creative  labor  power  of  Amer- 
ica by  lifting  the  last  load  of  illiteracy  from  American 
youth,  and  establishing  continuation  schools  for  indus- 
trial education  under  public  control  and  encouraging  agri- 
cultural education  and  demonstration  in  rural  schools. 

The  establishment  of  industrial  research  laboratories 
to  put  the  methods  and  discoveries  of  science  at  the 
service  of  American  producers. 

Political.1 — Direct  primaries  for  the  nomination  of 
State  and  National  officers,  nation-wide  preferential 
primaries  for  candidates  for  the  presidency,  direct  elec- 
tion of  United  States  Senators  by  the  people.  Urge  on 

1  Most  of  the  so-called  "political"  reforms  in  this  platform  and 
in  that  of  the  Socialists  have  a  plain  social  bearing. 


39°  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

all  States  the  short  ballot,  with  responsibility  to  the 
people  secured  by  the  initiative,  referendum  and  recall. 

Remaining  forests,  coal  and  oil  lands,  water  powers 
and  other  natural  resources  .  .  .  are  more  likely  to  be 
wisely  conserved  and  utilized  for  the  general  welfare  if 
held  in  the  public  hands. 

The  Progressive  party,  believing  that  no  people  can 
justly  claim  to  be  a  true  democracy  which  denies  political 
rights  on  account  of  sex,  pledges  itself  to  the  task  of 
securing  equal  suffrage  to  men  and  women  alike. 

Restriction  of  the  power  of  courts: 

First,  when  an  act  passed  under  the  police  power  of 
the  State  is  held  unconstitutional  under  the  State  consti- 
tution by  the  courts,  the  people,  after  an  ample  interval 
for  deliberation,  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  vote  on  the 
question  whether  they  desire  the  act  to  become  a  law, 
notwithstanding  such  decision. 

Second,  every  decision  of  the  highest  Appellate  Court 
of  a  State  declaring  an  act  of  the  Legislature  unconsti- 
tutional on  the  ground  of  its  violation  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  shall  be  subject  to  the  same  review  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  as  is  now  accorded 
to  decisions  sustaining  such  legislation. 

A  graduated  inheritance  tax  as  a  means  of  equalizing 
the  obligations  of  holders  of  property  to  government. 


THE  SOCIALIST  PARTY 

Collective  Ownership. — First,  the  collective  ownership 
and  democratic  management  of  railroads,  wire  and  wire- 
less telegraphs  and  telephones,  express  service,  steamboat 
lines  and  all  other  social  means  of  transportation  and 
communication  and  of  all  large-scale  industries. 


APPENDIX  391 

Second,  the  immediate  acquirement  by  the  municipal- 
ities, the  States  or  the  Federal  Government  of  all  grain 
elevators,  stockyards,  storage  warehouses  and  other  dis- 
tributing agencies,  in  order  to  reduce  the  present  extor- 
tionate cost  of  living. 

Third,  the  extension  of  the  public  domain  to  include 
mines,  quarries,  oil  wells,  forests  and  water  power. 

Fourth,  the  further  conservation  and  development  of 
natural  resources  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  all  the  peo- 
ple: 

(a)  By  scientific  forestation  and  timber  protection. 

(b)  By  the  reclamation  of  arid  and  swamp  tracts. 

(c)  By  the  storage  of  flood  waters  and  the  utilization 

of  water  power. 

(d)  By  the  stoppage  of  the  present  extravagant  waste 

of  the  soil  and  of  the  products  of  mines  and  oil 
wells. 

(e)  By  the  development  of  highway  and  waterway 

systems. 

Fifth,  the  collective  ownership  of  land  wherever  prac- 
ticable and,  in  cases  where  such  ownership  is  imprac- 
ticable, the  appropriation  by  taxation  of  the  annual  rental 
value  of  all  land  held  for  speculation  or  exploitation. 

Sixth,  the  collective  ownership  and  democratic  man- 
agement of  the  banking  and  currency  system. 

Unemployment. — The  immediate  Government  relief  of 
the  unemployed  by  the  extension  of  all  useful  public 
works.  All  persons  employed  on  such  works  to  be  en- 
gaged directly  by  the  Government  under  a  work  day  of 
not  more  than  eight  hours  and  at  not  less  than  the  pre- 
vailing union  wages.  The  Government  also  to  establish 
employment  bureaus ;  to  lend  money  to  States  and  mu- 
nicipalities, without  interest,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
on  public  works,  and  to  take  such  other  measures  within 


392  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

its  power  as  will  lessen  the  widespread  misery  of  the 
workers  caused  by  the  misrule  of  the  capitalist  class. 

Industrial  Demands. — The  conservation  of  human  re- 
sources, particularly  of  the  lives  and  well-being  of  the 
workers  and  their  families: 

First,  by  shortening  the  workday  in  keeping  with  the 
increased  productiveness  of  machinery. 

Second,  by  securing  to  every  worker  a  rest  period  of 
not  less  than  a  day  and  a  half  in  each  week. 

Third,  by  securing  a  more  effective  inspection  of  work- 
shops, factories  and  mines. 

Fourth,  by  forbidding  the  employment  of  children  un- 
der sixteen  years  of  age. 

Fifth,  by  abolishing  the  brutal  exploitation  of  convicts 
under  the  contract  system,  and  prohibiting  the  sale  of 
goods  so  produced  in  competition  with  other  labor. 

Sixth,  by  forbidding  the  interstate  transportation  of 
the  products  of  child  labor  and  of  all  uninspected  fac- 
tories and  mines. 

Seventh,  by  abolishing  the  profit  system  in  government 
work,  and  substituting  either  the  direct  hire  of  labor  or 
the  awarding  of  contracts  to  cooperative  groups  of  work- 
ers. 

Eighth,  by  establishing  minimum  wage  scales. 

Ninth,  by  abolishing  official  charity  and  substituting  a 
non-contributory  system  of  old-age  pensions,  a  general 
system  of  insurance  by  the  State  of  all  its  members 
against  unemployment  and  invalidism  and  a  system  of 
compulsory  insurance  by  employers  of  their  workers, 
without  cost  to  the  latter,  against  industrial  diseases,  acci- 
dents and  death. 

Political  Demands. — First,  absolute  fredom  of  press, 
speech  and  assemblage. 

Second,  the  adoption  of  a  graduated  income  tax,  the 


APPENDIX  393 

increase  of  the  rates  of  the  present  corporation  tax  and 
the  extension  of  inheritance  taxes,  graduated  in  propor- 
tion to  the  value  of  the  estate  and  to  nearness  of  kin — 
the  proceeds  of  these  taxes  to  be  employed  in  the  social- 
ization of  industry. 

Third,  the  gradual  reduction  of  all  tariff  duties,  par- 
ticularly those  on  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  Govern- 
ment to  guarantee  the  reemployment  of  wage-earners 
who  may  be  disemployed  by  reason  of  changes  in  taritt 
schedules. 

Fourth,  the  abolition  of  the  monopoly  ownership  of 
patents  and  the  substitution  of  collective  ownership,  with 
direct  rewards  to  inventors  by  premiums  or  royalties. 

Fifth,  unrestricted  and  equal  suffrage  for  men  and 
women. 

Sixth,  the  adoption  of  the  initiative,  referendum  and 
recall  and  of  proportional  representation,  nationally  as 
well  as  locally. 

Seventh,  the  abolition  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  veto 
power  of  the  President. 

Eighth,  the  election  of  the  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent by  direct  vote  of  the  people. 

Ninth,  the  abolition  of  the  power  usurped  by  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  to  pass  upon  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  legislation  enacted  by  Congress. 
National  laws  to  be  repealed  only  by  act  of  Congress  or 
by  a  referendum  vote  of  the  whole  people. 

Tenth,  the  abolition  of  the  present  restrictions  upon 
the  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  so  that  that  instru- 
ment may  be  amendable  by  a  majority  of  the  voters  in  a 
majority  of  the  States. 

Eleventh,  the  granting  of  the  right  of  suffrage  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  with  representation  in  Congress 


394  THE   GOSPEL   OF   JESUS 

and  a  democratic  form  of  municipal  government  for 
purely  local  affairs. 

Twelfth,  the  extension  of  democratic  government  to 
all  United  States  territory. 

Thirteenth,  the  enactment  of  further  measures  for  gen- 
eral education  and  particularly  for  vocational  education 
in  useful  pursuits.  The  Bureau  of  Education  to  be 
made  a  department. 

Fourteenth,  the  enactment  of  further  measures  for  the 
conservation  of  health.  The  creation  of  an  independent 
Bureau  of  Health,  with  such  restrictions  as  will  secure 
full  liberty  to  all  schools  of  practice. 

Fifteenth,  the  separation  of  the  present  Bureau  of 
Labor  from  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor 
and  its  elevation  to  the  rank  of  a  department.1 

Sixteenth,  abolition  of  all  Federal  District  Courts  and 
the  United  States  Circuit  Courts  of  Appeals.  State 
courts  to  have  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  arising  between 
citizens  of  the  several  States  and  foreign  corporations. 
The  election  of  all  judges  for  short  terms. 

Seventeenth,  the  immediate  curbing  of  the  power  of 
the  courts  to  issue  injunctions. 

Eighteenth,  the  free  administration  of  justice. 

Nineteenth,  the  calling  of  a  convention  for  the  revision 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


FEDERATION    OF   THE   CHURCHES    OF    CHRIST    IN    AMERICA 

We  deem  it  the  duty  of  all  Christian  people  to  concern 
themselves  directly  with  certain  practical  industrial  prob- 

1  This  has  now  been  done.  William  Banchop  Wilson,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, was  nominated  by  President  Woodrow  Wilson  the  first 
Secretary  of  Labor  and  was  duly  confirmed  by  the  Senate. 


APPENDIX  395 

lems.    To  us  it  seems  that  the  churches  must  stand 

For  equal  rights  and  complete  justice  for  all  men  in  all 
stations  of  life. 

For  the  right  of  all  men  to  the  opportunity  of  self- 
maintenance,  a  right  ever  to  be  wisely  and  strongly  safe- 
guarded against  encroachments  of  every  kind. 

For  the  right  of  workers  to  some  protection  against 
the  hardships  often  resulting  from  the  swift  crises  of 
industrial  change. 

For  the  principle  of  conciliation  and  arbitration  in 
industrial  dissensions. 

For  the  protection  of  the  worker  from  dangerous  ma- 
chinery, occupational  disease,  injuries  and  mortality. 

For  the  abolition  of  child  labor. 

For  such  regulations  of  the  conditions  of  toil  for 
women  as  shall  safeguard  the  physical  and  moral  health 
of  the  community. 

For  the  suppression  of  the  "sweating  system." 

For  the  gradual  and  reasonable  reduction  of  the  hours 
of  labor  to  the  lowest  practicable  point,  and  for  that 
degree  of  leisure  for  all  which  is  a  condtiion  of  the 
highest  human  life. 

For  a  release  from  employment  one  day  in  seven. 

For  a  living  wage  as  a  minimum  in  every  industry, 
and  for  the  highest  wage  that  each  industry  can  afford. 

For  the  most  equitable  division  of  the  products  of 
industry  that  can  be  ultimately  devised. 

For  suitable  provision  for  the  old  age  of  the  workers 
and  for  those  incapacitated  by  injury. 

For  the  abolition  of  poverty. 


INDEX 


Accident,     insurance     against, 

276;    surgical    treatment   of, 

278. 

Adams  Express  Company,  306. 
Advertising,     economic    waste 

of,  76;  effect  on  freedom  of 

the  press,  317. 
Ahab  and   Naboth's   vineyard, 

3. 

Alice  in  Wonderland,  299. 

Altenhoff,  garden  city  of,  169. 

Altruism,  of  Comte,  25. 

American  Federation  of  La- 
bor, 21,  328. 

America,  resources  of,  48;  not 
the  leader  of  democracy,  49, 
51;  following  the  Roman 
Empire,  317. 

American  Prison  Association, 
218. 

Americanitis,  the  slum  disease, 
148. 

Amos,  origin  of,  5 ;  cited,  6. 

Anaemia,  cause  of,  256. 

Armaments,  fallacy  of,  243. 

Arbitration,  in  New  Zealand, 

314. 

Archbald  case,  348. 
Aristocracy,   among   Hebrews, 

3-7;   versus   democracy,    17; 

the  new,  of  wealth,  52. 
Arkansas,    and    the    contract 

system,  237. 
Arnold,  Benedict,  71. 


Army  and  Navy,  effect  of 
standing,  199;  typhoid  in, 
269. 

Australia,  new  capital  of,  167. 

Automobile,  and  housing  prob- 
lem, 164. 

Baker,  George  F.,  quoted,  310. 

Baltimore,  department  stores 
of,  95- 

Banks,  Nathaniel  P.,  in. 

Beatitudes,  pretended  respect 
for,  107. 

Bennett,  Homer  Clark,  quoted, 
190. 

Berlin,  death-rate  in,  153; 
model  tenements  of,  156; 
and  city  planning,  175 ;  syph- 
ilis in,  185;  anti-war  demon- 
stration in,  246. 

Berne,  Socialist  congress  in, 
246. 

"Best  citizens,"  ethics  of,  358, 
365,  366. 

Bimson,  chief  of  police,  365, 
366. 

Blacklist,   declared   legal,   354. 

Blackstone,  cited,  70,  347. 

"Bobbin  Boy,"  in. 

Boards  of  health,  and  child  la- 
bor, 117;  power  of,  262,  274. 

Boorrioboola  Gha,  33. 

Boston  and  Maine  railway, 
"unscrambled,"  312. 


397 


398 


INDEX 


Boston  "tea  party,"  337. 

Boycott,  declared  illegal,  354. 

Brotherhood,  in  teachings  of 
Jesus,  17;  implications  of, 
19  seq.;  and  service,  24; 
among  workers,  209. 

Bryce,  Viscount,  on  garden 
cities,  168. 

Bucks  Stove  &  Range  Com- 
pany, 354. 

Burns,  detective,  349. 

Business,  ethical  character  of, 
290,  300. 

Caisson  disease,  267. 
Capital   punishment,   abolished 
for  women,  88;  indefensible, 
234- 

Capitalism,  waste  of,  78;  pre- 
vents progress,  91 ;  and  pros- 
titution, 184;  vicious  circle 
of,  198;  maintains  vice,  209; 
founded  on  exploitation, 
285 ;  its  use  of  inventions, 
295;  debases  journalism,  316; 
opposed  to  labor,  328;  domi- 
nant in  society,  333;  resorts 
to  brute  force,  359  seq.; 
ruthlessness  of,  370,  371 ;  de- 
fiant of  law,  375. 

Capitalist,  unnecessary,  295. 

Celibacy,  encourages  vice,  199. 

Charity,  futility  of,  69;  tax  on 
industry,  104,  105;  social  sig- 
nificance of,  275,  302,  304. 

Charles  I,  and  his  tyranny, 
337- 

Chicago,  department  stores  of, 
95,  194;  slums  of,  148;  its 
playgrounds,  166 ;  absorbs 


Pullman,     169;     segregation 
in,  204;   poverty  in,  302. 
Child,  Bill  of  Rights  of,  108; 
need  of  protecting,  in;  ex- 
ploitation  of,    109. 
Child   Labor,   in   canning  fac- 
tories,  no;  too  costly,  112; 
and   play,   113;   socially   un- 
necessary,  115;   unprofitable, 
116;  legislation  on,  117;  due 
to  greed,  118,  143;  and  fam- 
ily life,  119;  and  education, 
120  seq.;  domestic  and  agri- 
cultural, 143;  in  streets,  144; 
regulation  of,  146. 
Children's   Bureau,  260. 
Church,  leaning  to  aristocracy, 
17;  opposes  true  Gospel,  22; 
an  object  of  service,  30;  ne- 
cessity   of    awakening,    34; 
must  be  leader,  35 ;  a  dynamo, 
42 ;  not  advancing,  44 ;  main- 
tained    by     capitalists,     46; 
(inasi  partnership  with  vice, 
206;  preaching  brotherhood, 
299;     wasting    power,    313; 
shrinks   from   radical   meas- 
ures, 326;  alliance  with  capi- 
talism, 330;  its  future  atti- 
tude,   331;    workers'    hatred 
of,  374- 
Cigar     Makers'     International 

Union,  336. 
City    planning,    in    Australia, 

167;  in  Germany,  174,  175. 
Civic  pride,  false,  155;  in  Ger- 
many,  173. 

Civilization,  failure  of,  54. 
Clark,    Chief    Justice    Walter, 
quoted,  341. 


INDEX 


399 


Clans,   the   Hebrew,    I ;  ethics 

of,  10. 

Classes,  reason  for,  60. 
Class  consciousness,  nature  of, 

327. 

Coal  mines,  and  exploitation, 
301. 

Colorado,  penal  farm  of,  239 ; 
miners'  strike  in,  368;  Fed- 
eral grand  jury's  report, 
369;  courts  of,  371. 

Collins,  Justice,  cited,  207. 

Collier's,  on  Scott  case,  367. 

Combination,  or  conspiracy,  355. 

Commissioner  of  .  Education, 
report  of,  121. 

Commission  on  Industrial  Re- 
lations, 366. 

Competition,  opposed  to  Gos- 
pel, 82. 

Comptroller  of  Currency,  310. 

Comte,   and   altruism,   25. 

Conservation,  what  it  implies, 
103. 

Conservatism,  Professor  Ross 
on,  43 ;  of  judges,  106,  342. 

Constitution,  Federal,  and  Su- 
preme Court,  343;  Mr. 
Roosevelt  on,  359;  over- 
ridden by  capitalists,  360  seq. 

Consumers'  League,  on  living 
wage,  193. 

Contempt  proceedings,  origin 
of,  339;  should  be  abolished, 
34L 

Contract  system,  in  prisons, 
236  seq.;  Southern  experi- 
ence with,  238;  in  Oregon, 
240. 

Conversion,  kind  needed,  14, 
38. 


Corporations,     Blackstone    on, 

70;  size  of,  a  menace,  81. 
Cost  of  living,  118,  305. 
Coudert,   Frederic   R.,  quoted, 

347 

Courts,  obstacles  to  social 
progress,  106;  juvenile,  in 
Philadelphia,  157;  abuse  of 
injunction  law,  335  seq.;  de- 
crease of  respect  for,  342; 
powers  of,  343;  administer 
injustice,  345 ;  uphold  capi- 
talism, 353;  of  Colorado, 

371- 

Courts,  decisions  cited,  51,  76, 
143,  210,  336,  341,  364. 

Crime,  cost  of,  216  seq.;  homi- 
cidal, 217,  234;  among  rich 
and  poor,  219;  caused  by 
poverty,  220,  228;  cannot  be 
expiated,  222;  nor  avenged, 
222,  223;  cure  for,  225,  227; 
punishment  fails  to  prevent, 
226;  more  humane  treat- 
ment of,  227;  indeterminate 
sentences  for,  230;  parole 
system  and,  231 ;  first  offend- 
ers and,  232;  and  capital 
punishment,  234;  and  pris- 
ons, 234  seq.;  and  women, 
242;  war  the  greatest,  242. 

Cross,  social  significance  of,  39. 

Damien,  Father,  252. 
Danbury,  hatters  of,  355. 
David,  and  Hebrew  monarchy, 

3- 
Death-rate,  in   slums,   153;  of 

infants,  257,  260. 
Declaration    of    Independence, 

in  San  Diego,  362. 


4OO 


INDEX 


Democracy,  in  teaching  of 
Jesus,  17,  19,  53;  as  yet  un- 
tried, 20,  21 ;  America  not  the 
leader  in,  49;  industrial,  52, 
55 ;  hope  of,  53;  and  legisla- 
tion, 83 ;  and  vice,  208 ;  op- 
posed to  war,  247 ;  and  inde- 
pendent judges,  344. 

Department  Stores,  women  in, 
95.  99;  and  the  press,  317. 

Despotism,  among  the  He- 
brews, 2 ;  industrial,  55 ;  ju- 
dicial, 336,  345 ;  economic, 
52,  55,  76,  293,  300,  334. 

Diaz,  President  of  Mexico,  248. 

Dickens,  on  Podsnappery,  183. 

Disease,  God  not  author  of, 
58,  251 ;  the  act  of  man,  251 ; 
economic  significance  of, 
252;  tuberculosis,  254  seq.; 
beri  beri,  258;  and  ignor- 
ance, 260,  261 ;  occupational, 
263  seq.;  typhoid,  268  seq.; 
and  vivisection,  270  seq.;  in- 
surance against,  275. 

Dives  and  Lazarus,  282. 

''Divine  right,"  of  judges,  342. 

Dorcas,  304, 

Dresden,  and  her  garden  city, 
171. 

'Due  process  of  law,"  364. 

Diisseldorf,  and  city  planning, 
176. 

Education,  cost  of,  121 ;  and 
illiteracy,  122;  theories  of, 
123;  practical  vs.  cultural, 
124;  in  public  schools,  125 
seq. ;  Froebel's  contribution 
to,  129,  131 ;  Montessori 


method  in,  130;  aim  of,  132; 
secondary,  133  seq.;  Booker 
Washington  and,  134;  and 
technical  schools,  135 ;  and 
physical  culture,  138  seq.; 
and  food,  140;  and  housing, 
153;  in  hygiene,  260,  262. 

Edward  VI,  labor  laws  of,  318. 

Efficiency,  forbids  overstrain, 
74;  Secretary  Redfield  on, 
80 ;  and  minimum  wage,  103 ; 
opposed  to  child  labor,  115; 
among  girl  workers,  198 ;  and 
education,  262;  and  occupa- 
tional disease,  265. 

Elijah,  prophet,  5. 

Elisha,  prophet,  5. 

England,  repeals  conspiracy 
laws,  51 ;  adopts  minimum 
wage,  102 ;  illiteracy  in,  122 ; 
treatment  of  criminals  in, 
226;  picketing  legalized  in, 
336;  social  legislation  of, 
345- 

Environment,  a  saved,  40;  and 
character,  83,  250. 

Essen,  garden  city  of  Krupps, 
169. 

Ethics,  defects  of  current,  14; 
new,  41;  capitalistic,  44; 
double  standard  of,  190; 
and  environment,  83,  250; 
and  wealth,  291;  capitalist, 
defended,  351;  should  make 
distinctions,  373. 

Eugenics,  280  seq. 

Europe,  segregation  in,  205. 

Evangelism,  new  and  old,   14. 

Evening  Post,  quoted,   195. 

Expiation,  and  criminal  law, 
222. 


INDEX 


401 


Exploitation,  opposed  to  stew- 
ardship, 24;  and  the  child, 
109;  origin  of,  284;  founded 
on  property  in  land,  286  seq.; 
not  guilt  of  individuals,  297; 
of  telegraphers,  301 ;  by  ex- 
press companies,  306;  and 
freedom,  313;  New  Zea- 
land's lesson  on,  313  seq.;  in- 
separable from  wage  sys- 
tem, 315;  indirect  effects  of, 
316;  see  Profit. 

Factories,  earnings  of  women 
in,  95;  tuberculosis  in,  256; 
sanitation  of,  263. 

Fatherhood  of  God,  in  Old 
Testament,  9;  Jesus  on,  n- 
13;  means  brotherhood  of 
man,  18. 

Federation  of  Churches,  on 
poverty,  329. 

Fels,  Joseph,  quoted,  291. 

Feminism,   defined,  86. 

Ferrero,  quoted,  90. 

Flexner,  Abraham,  quoted, 
205. 

Food,  deficiency  of,  257;  high 
prices  of,  282.  See  Malnu- 
trition. 

Ford  Automobile  Company, 
321  seq. 

Foss,  Governor,  quoted,  218. 

France,  first  offenders  in, 
233. 

Froebel,  and  education,  129. 

Gambling,  commercialized,  187. 

Garden  cities,  168  seq.  Pull- 
man, 168.  Altenhoff,  169; 
Port  Sunlight,  169;  Letch- 
worth,  171;  Hellerau,  171. 


Georgia, and  juvenile  crime,233. 

Germany,  illiteracy  in,  122; 
secondary  instruction  in, 
J37;  garden  cities  of,  171; 
and  the  slum  problem,  172 
seq.;  municipal  enterprises 
in,  176;  and  war  scares,  244, 
245 ;  effect  of  social  insur 
ance  on,  277. 

God,  ideal  of,  taught  by  Jesus, 
n,  221;  not  author  of  social 
injustice,  58;  does  not  will 
disease,  58,  251. 

Golden  Rule,  27,  107,  114. 

Gompers,  Samuel,  338. 

Good  Roads,  how  obtainable, 
240. 

Good  Samaritan,  253,  329. 

Gospel  of  Jesus,  heart  of,  13; 
means  liberty,  16;  on  altru- 
ism, 25;  new  or  old,  26; 
orthodox  idea  of,  68;  for- 
bids exploitation,  69,  301 ; 
forbids  two  ethical  stand- 
ards, 70;  why  socially  in- 
effective, 71 ;  condemns  com- 
petition and  monopoly,  82; 
relation  to  women,  89,  97: 
and  social  duties,  108;  and 
schools,  129 ;  and  slums,  181 ; 
and  vice,  206;  and  prayer, 
251;  and  vivisection,  270; 
and  disease,  279;  and  social 
ills,  318;  making  it  mean 
something,  329;  and  labor 
problems,  372 ;  condemns 
violence,  373;  in  twentieth 
century,  376. 

Graham,  Sylvester,  259. 

Greed,  and  social  evils,  151 ; 
see  Exploitation,  Profit. 


4O2 


INDEX 


Hague,  tribunal  of,  72. 
Harlan,    Justice,   quoted,  344. 
Hatfield,  Governor,  363. 
Hebrew,  clans  of,  i ;  monarchy 

among,  2 ;  slavery  among,  3 ; 

and  social  struggle,  3,  7,  9; 

their      prophets,      5;      clan 

ethics  of,  IO. 

Hellerau,  garden  city,  169. 
High  Commission,  tyranny  of, 

337,  338. 

High  Finance,  and  the  Mor- 
gans, 296,  297;  and  T.  W. 

Lawson,    307;    its    exploits, 

309;  and  Money  Trust,  309 

seq.;  and  Ford,  323. 
Homicides,  comparative  ratios 

of,   217;   protection  against, 

234- 

Housing,  good,  156;  and  pri- 
vate enterprise,  159;  prob- 
lem of,  in  Philadelphia,  164; 
see  Slum. 

Howells,  William  D.,  quoted, 
229. 

Huerta,  and  revolution  in 
Mexico,  248. 

Humaneness,  progress  in,  226. 

Hunter,  Robert,  on  poverty, 
283. 

Hygiene,  sex,   190. 

Hyndman  (H.  M.)  on  revo- 
lution, 285. 

Idaho,  Supreme  Court  of,  341. 

Ignorance,  cause  of  vice,  184, 
189;  of  public  men,  261;  and 
infant  mortality,  260;  see 
Illiteracy. 

Illinois,  State  Senate,  investi- 
gation by,  95. 


,    Illiteracy,  in  various  countries, 

122. 

Immigration,  effect  on  illiter- 
acy, 122;  on  slums,  148. 

"Inalienable  rights,"  294. 

Indianapolis,  mayor  of,  357. 

Individualism,  failure  of,  26. 

Industry,  and  education  of 
girls,  98;  effect  of  technical 
schools  of  Germany  on,  138; 
socialization  of,  286,  296,  319 
seq.;  and  profit-sharing,  321 
seq. 

Industrialism,  end  of,  290. 

Industrial  Workers  of  the 
World,  21,  361,  365,  366. 

Inefficiency,  deadly  sin,  37;  of 
capitalism,  78;  and  over- 
work, 74,  267. 

Infant  mortality,  257,  260. 

Injunction,  abuse  of  by  courts, 
335  seq.;  justification  of,  336; 
real  object  of,  337;  should 
be  limited,  341. 

Injustice,  society  refuses  to 
consider,  303;  see  Justice, 
social. 

Insurance,  fire,  cause  of  crime, 
220;  social,  275. 

Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, 291. 

Invention  and  capitalism, 
295. 

Investigations,  Illinois  State 
Senate,  95;  futility  of,  186; 
Congressional  at  Lawrence, 
360. 

Isaiah,    prophet,   4,    5. 

Italy,  social  legislation  of, 
345- 


INDEX 


403 


Japan,  and  war  scares,  244. 
Jehovah,  exclusive  worship  of, 

7,  8. 

Jeshurun,  ancient  and  mod- 
ern, 317. 

Jesus,  his  idea  of  God,  11-13; 
his  teaching  revolutionary, 
15,  26;  on  brotherhood,  17; 
love  and  forgiveness,  18,  19; 
on  stewardship,  24 ;  on  altru- 
ism, 25 ;  prophet  of  democ- 
racy, 53;  Great  Physician, 
279. 

Jones,  "Mother,"  364. 

John  (Baptist),  questions 
Jesus,  15. 

Johnson,  fire  commissioner, 
220. 

Judas,  71,  291. 

Judges,  Bourbon,  106;  crimin- 
ality of,  339;  "divine  right" 
of,  341 ;  W.  H.  Taf t  on,  342 ; 
"independence"  of,  344;  fail 
to  comprehend  their  time, 
346;  slaves  of  precedent, 
342;  little  brothers  of  the 
rich,  348. 

Jury,  right  of  trial  by,  337. 

Juvenile  offenders,  in  Phila- 
delphia, 157;  in  Georgia, 
233;  in  Wisconsin,  233. 

Kavanagh,  Judge  Marcus, 
quoted,  222. 

Keen,  Dr.  W.  W.,  on  vivisec- 
tion, 271. 

Key,  Ellen,  quoted,  109. 

Kindergarten,  129. 

Kingdom,  Jesus'  teaching  on, 
13 ;  means  social  transfor- 
mation, 32;  Ritschl  on,  251. 


Krupps,  their  garden  city,  169, 

and   war   scares,  245. 
Kutter,    Hermann,   quoted,   22. 

Labor,  defined,  75 ;  vs.  play, 
130. 

Labor  Argus,  suppressed,  363. 

Laissez  faire,  doctrine  of,  81. 

Land,  private  property  in, 
among  Hebrews,  2-5;  cause 
of  discontent,  57;  exploita- 
tion founded  on,  286;  and 
ethics,  287. 

Land  tax,  in  New  Zealand, 
314- 

Laud  (Archbishop),  338. 

Law,  teaching  of  Hebrew,  9; 
administration  of  criminal, 
218;  defined,  332  seq.;  made 
for  and  by  whom,  350;  does 
not  secure  justice,  352; 
President  Taf  t  on,  353 ;  "due 
process  of,"  364. 

"Law  and  order,"  defined,  332 
seq.;  unfair  administration 
of,  348  seq.;  judged  by 
fruits,  358;  does  not  really 
exist,  375;  must  be  Chris- 
tianized, 376. 

Lawlessness,  case  of  McNa- 
maras,  303,  349,  367,  372 ;  de- 
nunciations of,  332;  of 
judges,  340;  a  symptom  of 
health,  374. 

Lawrence,  strike  at,  93,  318, 
350,  360  seq. 

Lawson,   Thomas  W.,  quoted, 

307- 

Lazear,  Captain,  252,  270. 
Lathrop,    Julia    C,    report   of, 

260. 


404 


INDEX 


Lead  poisoning,  265. 

Legislation,  on  child  labor, 
117,  143,  147;  on  housing  re- 
form, 160,  161,  1 66;  against 
vice  trust,  200,  210;  on  pub- 
lic health,  268. 

Leipzig,  and  housing  problem, 

I7S. 

Leisure,  social  value  of,  74; 
women's  need  of,  90. 

L'Enfant,  Major,  plan  of 
Washington,  167. 

Letchworth,  garden  city,  169. 

Lever  Brothers,  establish  gar- 
den city,  169. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  20,  65. 

Lindenfelt,  Lieutenant,  crime 
of,  371. 

Liquor,  increasing  consumption 
of,  212;  solution  of  problem, 
214. 

Little  Falls,  strike  at,  93,  318. 

Living  wage,  193;  see  Wage. 

London,  slums  of,  148;  syph- 
ilis in,  185;  and  anti-war 
demonstration,  246. 

London,  Samuel  H.,  cited,  187. 

Louisiana,  timber  strike  in, 
362. 

Ludlow,  massacre  at,  371. 

Maccabees,     and     the     social 

struggle,  9. 

Machiavelli,  quoted,  59. 
McNamaras,  case  of,  303,  349, 

367,  372. 
Machinery,  "labor-saving,"  80; 

fails  to  profit  workers,  91. 
Madero,     and     revolution     in 

Mexico,  248. 
Magna  Charta,  337. 


Maine,  prohibition  in,  214. 

Malnutrition,  effects  of,  257; 
extent  of,  304. 

Mammon,  worship  of,  21,  22, 
282,  291,  331. 

Manhattan,  land  in,  67;  prosti- 
tutes of,  187. 

Mann  act,  210. 

Manual  training,  133. 

Marriage,  antidote  to  vice, 
199 ;  "virtuous,"  201 ;  state 
regulation  of,  280. 

Marx,  Karl,  definition  of 
wealth,  292;  and  Engels. 
360. 

Maryland,  repeals  conspiracy 
laws,  51. 

Massachusetts,  and  child  la- 
bor, 146;  cost  of  crime  in, 
218. 

Mellen,  Charles  S.,  quoted, 
291. 

Mercury  poisoning,  265. 

Messiah,  Hebrew  ideal  of,  8; 
in  time  of  Jesus,  9,  15 ;  limi- 
tations of,  10. 

Metropolitan  Life  Insurance 
Company,  and  model  tene- 
ments, 178. 

Mexico,  recent  troubles  in, 
248;  backwardness  of,  372. 

Micah,  prophet,  3,  5,  6. 

Michigan,  copper  strike  in, 
368. 

Middle  Ages,  and  social  jus- 
tice, 72. 

Middleman,  elimination  of, 
305- 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  quoted,  295. 

Minimum  wage,  for  women, 
102;  in  Victoria,  103;  em- 


INDEX 


405 


ploycs  and,  104,  196;  eco- 
nomic criticism  of,  105 ;  and 
child  labor,  147;  palliative 
only,  195. 

Ministers,  teach  capitalistic 
ethics,  44;  attitude  to  work- 
ers, 41,  65,  93,  358,  373- 

Missions,  new  significance  of, 
32. 

Mitchell,  John,  338. 

Mob,  rule  of,  340. 

Monopoly,  and  prices,  54;  op- 
posed to  Gospel,  82 ;  govern- 
ment ownership  of,  315. 

Morgan,  J.  P.,  his  profession 
of  faith,  23,  80;  social  ser- 
vice of,  296,  297;  on  Money 
Trust,  310;  on  "unscram- 
bling of  eggs,"  311. 

Mouth-hygiene,  effect  of,  141. 

Municipalities,  and  rapid  tran- 
sit, 164;  enterprises  of  Ger- 
man, 176. 

Munich,  and  garden  cities,  171, 
175- 

Naboth's    vineyard,    3. 

Napoleon,  quoted,  72. 

Nazareth,  Jesus  in  synagogue 
of,  id. 

Nehemiah,  and  the  social 
struggle,  9. 

Nevada,  and  child  labor,  146. 

New  Hampshire,  and  child  la- 
bor, 146. 

New  York  (State)  and  trades 
unions,  51 ;  canning  factor- 
ies of,  no;  and  physical  ex- 
amination of  children,  117; 
and  child  labor,  146;  penal 
farm  of,  239. 


New  York  (City)  department 
stores  of,  95;  slums  of,  148, 
149;  housing  problem  in, 
160;  living  wage  in,  193;  in- 
cendiary fires  in,  220;  homi- 
cides in,  3>n 

New  York,  New  Haven  & 
Hartford  railway,  309,  312. 

New  Zealand,  infant  mortality 
in,  257;  social  experiments 
in,  313  seq, 

Newspapers,  affected  by  ex- 
ploitation, 316;  and  advertis- 
ing, 317. 

Nietzsche,  scorn  of  Christian- 
ity, 17. 

Nomads,  Hebrews  originally, 
i ;  the  Rechabites,  4. 

Nordau,  Max,  quoted,  75. 

Nurnberg,  and  garden  cities, 
171. 

Ohio,  penal  farm  of,  239. 
Oklahoma,    and    child    labor, 

146. 

Oligarchy,  judicial,  345. 
Oregon,  and  penal  system,  240. 
Overwork,  effects  of,  74,  267. 

Palliatives,  futility  of,  326. 

Paris,  syphilis  in,  185;  anti- 
war demonstration  in,  246. 

Parole  system,  231. 

Paterson,  strike  at,  46,  93,  318, 
365;  investigation  of,  366. 

Patriotism,  false  and  true, 
243. 

Penology,  false,  221  seq.;  true, 
224,  229;  and  prisons,  236. 

Pensions,  old  age  in  New  Zea- 
land, 315. 


406 


INDEX 


Pennsylvania,  and  women 
workers,  92;  smaller  cities 
of,  96;  and  child  labor,  146. 

Philadelphia,  department 
stores  of,  95;  slums  of,  148; 
juvenile  courts  in,  157;  and 
housing  problem,  164;  living 
wage  in,  193. 

Philanthropy,  social  value  of, 
302. 

Phosphorus  poisoning,  265. 

Picketing,  in  England  and 
America,  336. 

Pitney,  Judge,  quoted,  76. 

Plague,  Great  Black,  see  Syph- 
ilis. 

Plague,  Great  White,  see  Tu- 
berculosis. 

Plato,  on  end  of  State,  82, 

Play,  value  of,  113. 

Podsnap  and  Podsnappery, 
183. 

Poffenberger,    Judge,    quoted, 

364- 

Police,  compact  with  vice,  187; 
uphold  capitalism,  357. 

Port  Sunlight,  garden  city, 
169. 

Pouget,  on  social  ethics,  27; 
cited,  75. 

Poverty,  and  slum,  152;  in 
Berlin  tenements,  157;  cause 
of  sexual  vice,  188,  198;  de- 
fined in  social  terms,  192; 
and  crime,  220,  228;  charity 
no  cure  for,  275;  cause  of 
all  social  ills,  282;  Robert 
Hunter  on,  283;  and  exploi- 
tation, 284;  and  socialization 
of  industry,  296;  investiga- 
tion of,  302;  sovereign  cure 


of,  319;  and  profit-sharing, 
321  seq.;  Federation  of 
Churches  on,  329. 

Prayer,  Gospel  idea  of,  251. 

Prisons,  defects  of,  235;  re- 
forms in,  236  seq. 

Prodigal  Son,  parable  of,  12, 
191. 

Profit,  and  child  labor,  143; 
and  housing  problem,  163 ; 
and  the  saloon,  211;  is  theft, 
290;  everything  sacrificed  to, 
294;  see  Exploitation. 

Profit-sharing,  possibilities  of, 
321  seq. 

Prohibition,  fails  to  prohibit, 
213. 

Property,  origin  of  private, 
66;  offenses  against,  228; 
"sacredness"  of,  293;  true 
function  of,  294. 

Prostitution,  commercializa- 
tion of,  182,  187;  the  sin  of 
society,  183 ;  and  capitalism, 
184;  inevitable,  192;  relation 
to  wages,  193-195;  futile 
remedies  for,  200,  202  seq.; 
Dr.  Flexner  on,  205 ;  and 
property,  206. 

Prussia,   illiteracy  in,  122. 

Pullman,  town  of,  168. 

Punishment,  no  cure  for 
crime,  226. 

Queensbury,   Marquis   of,   and 

industry,  81. 
Quinlan,  Patrick,  case  of,  365. 

Rapid  transit,  and  municipali- 
ties,  164. 
Rechabites,  4. 


INDEX 


407 


Redemption,  in  Old  Testa- 
ment, 8,  10. 

Redfield,  Secretary,  on  labor 
costs,  80. 

Rent,  nature  of,  67. 

Retardation  in  schools,  causes 
and  cure  of,  127  seq. 

Retribution,  Gospel  idea  of, 
221. 

Revenge,  forbidden  by  Jesus, 
222;  anti-social,  224. 

Revolution,  proclaimed  by 
Jesus,  15;  Hyndman  on  the 
corning,  285;  stages  of,  320; 
in  industry,  346,  347. 

Ritschl,  Albrecht,  quoted,  251. 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  rise  to 
wealth,  50;  origin  of  for- 
tune, 292;  nature  of  his 
wealth,  293. 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  jr.,  tes- 
timony on  Colorado  strike, 
370. 

Rockefeller  Bureau  of  Social 
Hygiene,  187. 

Rock  Island  railway,  "un- 
scrambled," 312. 

Roman  Empire  and  its  decay, 
90. 

Ross,  Professor  E.  A.,  quoted, 

43,  313- 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  and  the 
Constitution,  359. 

Rosenthal  murder,  188. 

Russell,  Dr.  James,  quoted,  134. 

Russia,  laws  protecting  wom- 
en, 92;  homicides  in,  217; 
social  legislation  of,  345. 

Sabotage,  criticisms  of,  69. 
St.  Francis,  304. 


Saloon,  secret  of  its  immunity, 
187;  commercialization,  212; 
how  to  banish,  213. 

Salvation,  what  it  is,  13;  or- 
thodox doctrine  of,  30;  new 
ideal  of,  38,  40. 

Salvation  Army,  304, 

Samaritan,  Good,  253,  329. 

San  Diego  and  the  I.  W.  W., 
361,  362. 

Sanatoriums,    254,    256. 

Sanitation  of  factories,  263, 
268. 

"Scab,"  ethical  status  of,  70. 

Schedule  K  and  its  beauties, 
361. 

Schools,  failure  of  public,  125 
seq.;  industrial  and  techni- 
cal, 135 ;  continuation,  136. 

Scotland,   illiteracy  in,   122. 

Scott,  Alexander,  case  of,  367. 

Selling,  waste  in,  77. 

Seneca,  quoted,  224. 

Sentences,  equal,  226;  indeter- 
minate, 230. 

Segregation,  and  social  vice, 
203-205. 

Shaw,  George  Bernard, 
quoted,  182. 

Sherman  Act,  effect  of,  355, 
356. 

Sin,  false  distinctions  about, 
14;  new  definition  of,  36; 
deadly,  37;  social,  313. 

Slavery,  among  Hebrews,  3; 
chattel  and  wage,  76;  social 
foundation  of,  287;  essence 
of,  300. 

Slum,  in  Europe,  149;  and 
greed,  151 ;  and  death-rate, 
153;  not  necessary,  154;  and 


4o8 


INDEX 


health,  158;  and  private  en- 
terprise, 159;  and  play- 
grounds, 1 66;  problem  in 
Germany,  172  scq.;  in  small- 
er cities,  180;  and  Gospel  of 
Jesus,  181;  and  vice,  197. 

Small,  Professor,  quoted,  295. 

Social  justice,  futility  of  many 
efforts  at,  34;  and  the  land, 
57,  62,  67;  and  inheritance, 
68;  in  Middle  Ages,  72;  dif- 
ficulty in  attaining,  80;  and 
ignorance,  102,  no;  and  in- 
difference, 107;  and  good 
housing,  152. 

Social     Service     Commission, 

94- 

Socialism,  morality  of,  196; 
Bismarck  and,  178;  and  war, 
246. 

Society,  regeneration  of,  28; 
how  constituted,  61. 

Solomon,  and  Hebrew  mon- 
archy, 3. 

Spain,  war  with,  248;  social 
legislation  of,  345. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  on  govern- 
ment, 82. 

Star  Chamber,  Court  of,  337, 
338. 

State,  Plato  on,  82. 

Steel  Trust,  on  sabotage,  69; 
interest  of  in  war,  245;  re- 
lief work  of,  276;  favors  to, 

351. 

Sterilization,  compulsory,  281. 

Stewardship,  Jesus  on,  24. 

Stocks,  "watering"  of,  306  seq. 

Strafford,  338. 

Strassburg,  and  housing  prob- 
lem, 175- 


Strikes,  and  injunctions,  337; 
at  Lawrence,  93,  318,  350, 
360  seq.;  at  Little  Falls,  93, 
318;  in  Louisiana,  362;  at 
Paterson,  46,  93,  318,  365, 
366;  in  Michigan,  368;  in 
Colorado,  368  seq. 

Stuart  tyranny,  and  America, 
363. 

Suffrage,  women,  86;  in  New 
Zealand,  315. 

Sun  Printing  Company,  case 
of,  336. 

Surgery,  stimulated  by  social 
insurance,  278;  and  vivisec- 
tion, 270  seq. 

Syphilis,  a  penalty,  252;  and 
eugenics,  280. 

Taft,  William  Howard,  on  so- 
cial justice,  66;  on  judges, 
342 ;  on  law,  353. 

Talent,  career  open  to,  72. 

Taxation,  by  private  persons, 
54;  of  society  by  industries, 
115;  power  of,  293. 

Taylor,  Charles  Keen,  and 
physical  culture,  141. 

Taylor,  Frederick  W.,  quoted, 
353- 

Telegraphs,  in  New  Zealand, 
315;  exploitation  of  opera- 
tors, 301. 

Tenements,  rear,  157,  158; 
model,  159  seq.;  defined,  165 ; 
"dumb  bell,"  162;  how  fi- 
nanced in  Germany,  178; 
manufactures  in,  198. 

Testamentary  rights,  67. 

Thrift,  meaning  of,  60. 

Toil,  defined,  75. 


INDEX 


409 


Tools,  private  ownership  of, 
300. 

Trades  unions,  20,  51. 

Tribune,  New  York,  on  Pater- 
son  troubles,  367. 

Trusts,  Brewers',  212;  Money, 
309  seq.;  socialization  of,  321 ; 
Standard  Oil,  349;  Woolen, 
and  Sherman  Act,  356; 
Lumber,  362. 

Tuberculosis,  a  penalty,  252; 
cost  of  "cures,"  254;  preva- 
lence of,  255;  cause  of,  256; 
in  certain  trades,  264;  and 
eugenics,  280. 

Tuskegee  Institute,  134. 

Typhoid,  scourge  of,  268;  pre- 
vention of,  269. 

Unearned    increment,    58,    67, 

179. 
United    Charities    Society,    on 

poverty,  302. 
University,  of  Wisconsin,  34; 

exists  for  culture,  124. 
Utah,  and  child  labor,  146. 

Vaughn,  Father,  quoted,  29. 

Veiller,  Lawrence,  quoted, 
158. 

Venereal  disease,  prevalence 
of,  185 ;  see  Syphilis. 

Vera  Cruz,  occupation  of,  249. 

Vicarious  suffering,  12. 

Vice,  and  the  police,  187;  and 
poverty,  188 ;  economic 
causes  of,  195;  in  guise  of 
marriage,  201 ;  segregation 
no  remedy  for,  203-205 ;  and 
politics,  207,  208;  and  capi- 
talism, 209:  and  the  law,  210. 


Victoria,     and     the    minimum 

wage,    103. 
Violence,   forbidden  by  Jesus, 

15;  two  kinds  of,  373. 
Vitamines,    and    food    values, 

258. 
Vivisection,  value  of,  270  seq. 

Wage,  a  living,  193;  child 
earners,  109;  minimum,  102, 
103,  104,  105,  147,  195,  196. 

Wage  system,  and  progress, 
106;  and  exploitation,  315. 

Wall  Street,  men  of,  297; 
leaders  in,  310. 

War,  crime  of,  242;  and  ar- 
maments, 243 ;  professional 
obsession  about,  244;  war 
against,  by  workers,  246; 
private,  by  capitalism,  372. 

Ward,  Professor,  on  philan- 
thropy, 302. 

Washington  (State)  reforma- 
tory of,  240. 

Washington  (City),  plan  of, 
167,  174. 

Washington,  Booker,  and  edu- 
cation, 134. 

Waste,  of  capitalism,  78;  of 
human  life,  79. 

"Water"  (fictitious  value)  306 
seq. 

Wealth,  ethical  significance  of. 
291 ;  nature  of  modern,  293 ; 
see  Mammon. 

Weekly  Issue,  and  Paterson 
strike,  367. 

West  Virginia,  and  coal 
strike,  363. 

Western  Union  Telegraph 
Company,  354. 


4io 


INDEX 


White,  Alfred  T.,  and  model 
tenements,  159. 

White,  Andrew  D.,  quoted, 
217. 

Wilson,  President,  and  Mex- 
ican troubles,  309;  on  bank- 
ing system,  309;  surrender 
to  Money  Trust,  311. 

Wisconsin,  university  of,  34; 
and  child  labor,  146;  and  ju- 
venile offenders,  233 ;  and 
accident  insurance,  276;  and 
eugenics,  280. 

Wisdom  of  Sirach,  9. 

Women,  "wrongs"  of,  87; 
laws  favorable  to,  88;  in  in- 
dustry, 92,  93;  wages  of,  94, 
95 ;  causes  of  economic  de- 
ficiency of,  97;  competition 
among,  99;  lack  of  organi- 
zation, 100;  and  domestic 
service,  101 ;  minimum  wage 


for,  102;  effect  of  economic 
dependence  on,  20:. 

Wood,  W.  M.,  of  Woolen 
Trust,  349,  35<>. 

Work,  universal  duty  of,  57; 
right  of  all,  63;  zoological 
morality  of,  75. 

Workers,  not  ethically  su- 
perior, 20;  and  "a  full  din- 
ner pail,"  50;  their  demands, 
62;  their  needs,  64;  ethics 
of,  70;  women,  92;  in  cloth- 
ing trades,  93;  strike  of, 
against  war,  246;  insurance 
of,  275,  276;  taxed  for  non- 
workers,  298;  slaves  of  capi- 
talism, 300. 

World,  New  York,  on  Michi- 
gan strike,  368. 

"World,"  new  idea  of,  36. 

Zebedee,  sons  of,  23. 
Zueblin,  Professor,  quoted,  50. 


T 


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life? 

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